WSJ.com. WASHINGTON — Among the sharpest policy disputes between Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is whether all Americans should be required to get health insurance, as Sen. Clinton proposes. She has said repeatedly that her plan is the only one that would cover everyone.
Now, after months on the defense, Sen. Obama is hitting back by emphasizing the downside of her policy: mandating insurance means penalties for those who fail to get it. His policy requires parents to insure their children, with penalties for those who don’t, but his mandate is much less sweeping than the one proposed by Mrs. Clinton, which affects all Americans.
The Illinois senator has hit the point hard in fliers mailed to voters’ homes and in a televised debate Thursday night. “In order for you to force people to get health insurance, you’ve got to have a very harsh, stiff penalty. And Sen. Clinton has said that we will go after their wages,” Mr. Obama said during the debate broadcast on CNN.
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Stiff Right Jab responds: Socialism is coming in spades. The Republican Party’s inability to excite its base with legitimate alternatives is largely to blame. The base’s blind allegiance to liberal leaning Bush I and compassionate conservative Bush II come in a close second. What’s the answer? Not withdrawal from public life, which is what the irresponsible are doing, but rather educated, persuasive, dedicated, enduring opposition to the neo-cons, third wayers, compassionate conservatives, and other right-center establishment forces in the party - that, or the creation of a principled, viable, active, dedicated third party. Sadly, limited government libertarianism, with its own extremes that are more left-leaning than their party faithful seem to realize, is not the answer either. The new party, or reformation movement needs to be something more in line with the old classical/moral liberalism of the American Founding Era.
Steve Farrell is the publisher and editor of Stiff Right Jab, a pundit with NewsMax.com, and president of the Latter-day Center for Moral Liberalism.
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