Senator Tim Johnson will appear at a public "thank you" event at the Sioux Falls Convention Center next Tuesday, August 28. The press release specifically invites "all South Dakotans," making clear the Senator isn't handpicking a small, manageable, partisan audience for his first public appearance since his stroke last December.
While most pundits will be ready to parse however much Senator Johnson may say or however much his hand may tremble while he says it for its significance to the 2008 Senate horse race, perhaps the good Senator will surprise us and, amid his thanks to his patient constituents, offer a few remarks on some policy directions we should pursue during the remainder of the 110th Congress. Perhaps the most important and fitting area Senator Johnson could address: health care. After receiving eight months of world-class medical care, the payment for which has been administered efficiently (we hope!) by his employer, the federal government, Senator Johnson is in an excellent position to stand before the voters and say he is ready to support extending that coverage to every American, not just the eight-million-plus federal employees.
The good Senator has wiser politicos than this author helping craft the right message, not to mention a doctor or two advising him just how much he should take on. It'll likely do the Senator as much good just to see his friends and neighbors as it will them to see him in public. There's no need to turn this event into a big policy discussion. Still, as Senator Johnson recovers from his illness, enjoying top-notch care and not having to worry about expenses, what better time to acknowledge how few Americans enjoy such security and how a single-payer system would improve our nation's health and financial security?
Yes, let the dawn of a new age begin!
ReplyDeletesome of our elders might remember it...
Thanks for the link, Phaedrus! From the Donald Mitchell review at that site:
ReplyDelete"The book's title is drawn an example of flawed government legislation described by William Graham Sumner in 1883 where two parties seek to help a third party in a way that requires a fourth party to participate . . . but without considering the effect on the fourth party -- the forgotten man who 'always pays.' Interestingly, the book points out the many different people who were identified by politicians of the era as the forgotten man."
Of course, in a society where we restore the idea that the govrnment is us, there is no "forgotten man" -- i.e., no "fourth party" being forced by two original parties to pay for assistance to a third party. The Sumner quote and Shlaes book appear to rest on a view of America as an unhappy and incohesive mixture of warring factions (a perhaps comforting view for wealthy elitists). I would prefer to work from the assumption that we are one society with common interests.
Well, at least Sumner believed in Darwin (see p.3)!
ReplyDeleteAnother great idea from madville times. Let's socialize healthcare. Let's be just like cuba and canada, clearly they have better healthcare systems than we do. All the foreign leaders go there for treatment instead of here (MAYO)! I can't believe you're a teacher!
ReplyDeleteYes, working from the assumption that we all share YOUR goals and interests makes it easier for you to use MY resources to accomplish them! It doesn't how bad the idea is if the goal is noble enough after all.
ReplyDeleteAmerica IS made up of factions warring over their ideas. Because I would like to end poverty in America does not mean I am considered when 'Representative A' and 'Senator B' decide to take tax money to help 'Sick Child C' I might agree with the end goal but I would definitely be at war with those that thought they could accomplish it somehow by federal pillaging for a bad program.
You could say the same thing about No Child Left Behind. Because we have the common interest of educating the next generation doesn't mean you aren't at war to stop that program. Here, YOU are the forgotten man, victim of a government trying to do good because it can.