The Nanny State
Posted at 9:02pm on Feb. 6, 2008 Will Washington state take Wisconsin's health care sloppy seconds?
By Jeff Emanuel
At the beginning of this legislative session, State Senator Karen Keiser (D-Kent) introduced legislation that would radically increase government control of health care in the state of Washington. The legislation was based almost entirely on a plan that had been considered – and rejected – a year before by a state halfway across the country.
Thanks to the efforts of pro-market legislators like Wisconsin State Rep. Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa), who spent a great deal of time, resources, and political capital educating their fellow representatives, and the state’s voters, about what a poor policy decision it would be to enact the expensive and inefficient program, the 2007 attempt at government-run health care was removed from the state budget it had been inserted into, and was scrapped entirely.
Though Wisconsin managed to avert the debacle that the “Healthy Wisconsin” program would have caused in the state’s health care market, the program’s authors did not give up on their dream of subsuming the health care and health insurance markets entirely into a government-run framework. Instead, remaining true to government’s penchant for rehabilitating failed ideas and policies and presenting them – unchanged, but under slightly new names – as new solutions, they simply exported their idea to Washington, where Sen. Keiser was happy to adopt them and to present them as a "solution" to Washington’s health care woes.
Read on for more.
Posted in Government-run health care | Health care | Policy | The Nanny State | Washington | Wisconsin — Comments (45) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 8:51pm on Dec. 23, 2007 More On The Burgeoning Nanny State
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
I see that Hillary Clinton is determined to join Mitt Romney on the brave frontiers of officious meddling when it comes to the issue of video game content. God forbid that any of these candidates recall that there is, you know, a war going on.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I like Thompson as much as I do. It is frustrating watching his campaign sputter (though the campaign does appear to be picking up). But when it comes to ensuring the existence and enhancement of the message of small government, there is no one better running. A Thompson Administration would focus more on carrying out the actual duties of the United States government and less on pandering to the issues of the day and expanding government in the process.
