Fool me twice, etc.
Ben Cardin was in my ‘hood, or at least close by it, on Tuesday to announce an infusion of federal pork into the money sump that is the Hagerstown Airport.
While he was there he stopped by the Walnut Street Community Health Center to tout his solution to the nation’s health care problems, at least the problem as he sees it.
From the recently rebranded Hagerstown Morning Herald which has the worst newspaper website in the entire nation if not the known world:
Cardin, D-Md, said Congress needs to support a universal health care bill that he introduced last week and a proposal to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
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If passed, the universal health care bill would require uninsured people to enroll in a qualified health care plan and would impose a tax on anyone who fails to comply, he said. Proceeds from the tax would be used to buy health insurance for violators of the law.
[…]The four-page bill would provide a simple solution to ensure all Americans have health care, he said.
A few thoughts on this.
First, it is the nanny state at its worst. This bill is not directed at those who can’t afford insurance but rather those who opt to not carry insurance. While providing health insurance for those who can’t find it might be a laudable public policy goal in some circles forcing people who have elected to self-insure to buy insurance is simply wrong.
Second, there is no such thing as a “simple solution” in any system as large and complex as the health care system. This sham of a bill and Cardin’s touting of it marks him as either a knave or poltroon.
Of course, we all knew that in 2006 when he ran for senate.
