-[Back in the 80s, apologists for the contra war on Nicarauga used to -say "even the liberal New Republic supports the contras." Now, even -the New Republic supports some kind of universal health insurance -scheme. So now TNR joins a third of American CFOs in taking a -position to the left of Nathan Newman!]
Or maybe they promote an unobtainable "leftwing" position precisely to blunt the quite obtainable "fair share" bills moving through state legislatures across the country, which would tax businesses to pay for health care, rather than dumping the costs on the already burdened public till-- with no new tax revenues to pay for it. A bunch of "centrist" Dem organizations, like the New America Foundation, coincidentally suddenly discovered a fervor for universal health care just as the anti-Wal-Mart health care campaigns moved forward. Call me cynical, but I see a typical manipulation of the left at work, getting all the lefties and liberal purists to demand the unobtainable and get Wal-Mart and other big employers off the hook from the fair share legislation being proposed across the country. So I think TNR is part of the pro-Wal-Mart propaganda team.
Of course I'm for universal health care. I think the best way to achieve it is to mandate all employers provide health care, expand SCHIP programs to all children -- a la Illinois' program, and add a health care component to unemployment insurance. That would move the country to universal coverage and then we would have clear pressure to get rid of the waste in the system since no one would have any option to dump their health care costs.
Nathan Newman