Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Health Care Bill Debate

Megan McArdle has another insightful article about the coming debate over the health care bill recently passed out of committee in the Senate. She comments on Michael Cannon's article at Cato explaining wht Cannon thinks that the health care bill may die because of internal conflicts among Democratic interest groups.

McArdle does not think Cannon is correct, and that health care reform will pass, will fail, and cause a huge hole in the deficit. Democrats will be stuck trying to explain why a national heath bill ballooned in cost just like the one in Massachusetts, causing the Restoration of the Republicans to power in Congress.

So what if McArdle is right, and Republicans return to power after the Democrats are crucified on the health care cross? Will the health care "reform" enacted by the Congress be rolled back? Or will the Republicans morph into something akin to European "Conservatives" who are winning campaigns based not on ending the social services offered by the government, but on promising to manage them better and deliver them cost effectively.

I think that this is a real possibility. After all, when has a social program ever been eliminated in the United States?

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