This is just the sort of article that should serve as a warning to anybody--with even the vaguest sense of how government works--who wants to report the news:
The fight over a popular health insurance program for children is intensifying, with President Bush now leading efforts to block a major expansion of the program, which is a top priority for Congressional Democrats....
Democrats have proposed a major expansion of the program, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, to cover more youngsters with a substantial increase in federal spending.
Administration officials have denounced the Democratic proposal as a step toward government-run health care for all. They said it would speed the erosion of private insurance coverage. And they oppose two of the main ideas contemplated by Democrats to finance expanded coverage for children: an increase in the federal tobacco tax and cuts in Medicare payments to private insurance companies caring for the elderly.
White House objections to the Democratic plan are “philosophical and ideological,” said Allan B. Hubbard, assistant to the president for economic policy.
I don't doubt that Hubbard said this. But the dynamic here is pretty simple. Democrats want to expand health care access broadly, but due to systemic constraints, have limited their efforts to needier groups like the poor, the very old, and the very young. Republicans do not. And so a furious spin battle has erupted between Democrats and Republicans, who would like to junk the proposal without looking like the party who denied health care to children.
This is not controversial. Republicans have very wealthy patrons who, for simple economic reasons, do not want these efforts to succeed. No doubt some in the GOP do in fact believe the free-market rationale that Hubbard has put forth here. But George Bush (Socrates) has a verifiable record of working on behalf of his economic base, whether or not their needs require adhering to particularly libertarian economic principles. That is the appropriate context for this effort, but for reasons peculiar to daily news reporting in the United States, providing that context is basically forbidden.
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