Along with the free South Park
videos (below), we also get a free WSJ. Did you know that?
A subscriber for 30 years, I decided to pull the plug. There was
a time when the Journal's editorial page (the rest of the paper was/is
decidedly leftist) was THE source for rational conservative thought,
but no more. I erased my credit card info, so no automatic
renewal. I was surprised, then, when I clicked it up last week
and was there straightaway, with nary a sign-in splash page in
sight. Rupert said he was thinking about it, and he
did. It's the second largest circulating daily (after USA Today) in the US, so
what's written has national clout - the gravitas thing.. Here's the Ed Page link, and below a snippet from " Terminated," on the death of Arnie Care in California.
| “ | Arnold
Schwarzenegger's "universal" health-care plan died in the California
legislature on Monday, in what can only be called a mercy killing. So
let's conduct a political autopsy, because there are important lessons
here for the national health-care debate.
It's especially useful to compare today's muted obituaries to the
page-one melodrama that surrounded the Governor when he announced his
plan a year ago. Endless media mash notes were bestowed on the
"post-partisan" Republican trying to get something done.
[Arnold Schwarzenegger]
The idea was that Mr. Schwarzenegger would set a national precedent, leading to a groundswell for reform in Washington.
***
Opposition also arose because the plan didn't do
enough to punish the left's health-care villains. While it greatly
expanded regulation of insurers -- requiring them to accept all
applicants, and prohibiting premium differences based on health status
-- it didn't cap how much they could charge consumers, or
regulate their profits. Democrats also complained that the taxes the
plan imposed on business, as high as 6.5% of payroll, weren't high
enough. Business disagreed.
All of which is to say that while the plan was opposed
by nearly all Republicans, it died at the hands of Democrats. Mr.
Schwarzenegger was a collaborator in that he went out of his way to
assail and thus alienate fellow Republicans for opposing tax increases
to pay for the plan. But if Mrs. Clinton or Barack Obama want to push a
major health-care reform through Congress, they will have to find a way
to appease their own left-wing while not alienating business and
taxpayers. [carry on]
| ” |
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