Obama’s health care plan (1)
In a country like Britain – where we have had a National Health Service for 61 years and where all the major political parties support the NHS – it’s hard to comprehend the level of emotional debate in the United States over President Obama’s health care plan.
In this “New York Times” op-ed piece by the Nobel Prize economist Paul Krugman (drawn to my attention by my American friend David Eden), he talks of “congressmen shouted down, congressmen hanged in effigy, congressmen surrounded and followed by taunting crowds” and, no doubt rightly, identifies much of the vilification of the proposals as based on a caricature of the real plan and a reaction to a black man in the White House.
August 17th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Hi Roger,
I’m not sure I agree that people who oppose the health care plan are either misinformed or racist. That seems like quite a stretch considering that approximately 53% of the nation opposes the plan. (Rasmussen poll, 11 Aug)
It reminds me of the European Constitution debate. I heard one lawyer give a speech in which she said that “no” voters did not understand the proposals.
I asked why wouldn’t ignorance about the constitution be evenly distributed amongst opponents and proponents? The speaker laughed and conceded that it was probably the case that even many supporters of the constitution were ignorant.
So some of the people who disagree with us may be ignorant or racist, but it’s probably safe to assume that many millions of Americans oppose Obama’s health care reform for other, legitimate reasons.
Take care,
Russ
August 20th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
I haven’t yet heard a “legitimate” reason that makes any sense. The opinions I have come across seem to be based on Obama being a “left wing” nutter who is getting them into debt, and robbing them of the right to “buy” health care.
WE have a choice in the UK, one would hope the same for people all over the globe.