Expanding children’s health care

It’s interesting. There’s a piece in the NYTimes today about the Bush administration’s attempts to fight the expansion of state-run children’s health insurance programs. It includes the Administration’s typical attempts to spike such programs: “Administration officials have denounced the Democratic proposal as a step toward government-run health care for all. They said it would speed the erosion of private insurance coverage.” EWWW… now I’m scared! (Which, of course, is what they want to have happen — fear of “government-takeovers.”)

Wow -- does this mean the Democrats in congress might actually be doing something good? It's hard for me to believe that they have the gumption to do such a thing, but perhaps Moore's movie, Sicko, might actually build enough of a groundswell in favor of universal health coverage that Congress will actually sit up and take notice. In any case, at this point I think far more people than the administration realizes, are actually IN FAVOR OF solutions that emphasize the common good.

Congress wants to up spending levels to such an extent that we would spend $75 billion over five years. Imagine that! $75 billion dollars for kids, spread over five years. And we spend how much a day in Iraq? On obscene and immoral carnage? (I know, I'm laying on the sarcasm rather thick, but give me a break!)