So what kind of philosophy says that it’s O.K. to subsidize insurance companies, but not to provide health care to children?
Now, why should Mr. Bush fear that insuring uninsured children would lead to a further “federalization” of health care, even though nothing like that is actually in either the Senate plan or the House plan? It’s not because he thinks the plans wouldn’t work. It’s because he’s afraid that they would. That is, he fears that voters, having seen how the government can help children, would ask why it can’t do the same for adults.
And there you have the core of Mr. Bush’s philosophy. He wants the public to believe that government is always the problem, never the solution. But it’s hard to convince people that government is always bad when they see it doing good things. So his philosophy says that the government must be prevented from solving problems, even if it can. In fact, the more good a proposed government program would do, the more fiercely it must be opposed.
But it has taken the fight over children’s health insurance to bring the perversity of this philosophy fully into view.
Bush is doing a damn good job of making government not work. Unless you're rich, of course. Then it works for you just fine.
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