Thursday, September 10, 2009

Balancing act

Listening to Bill Bennett's radio show this morning, the guest host played a clip of President Obama placing himself in the middle between those on the left who want single-payer and those on the right who'd like to break the link between work and insurance to bring greater choice and competition.
There's other balancing acts that have to be done. We're a vast country of 300 million people. Some are smart and some not-so-smart. Some are honest and some are devious.
How do you build a plan with so many differences?
A major complaint about HR3200 through August was putting IRS information to use to determine eligibility. How do you make sure Bernie Madoff gives the correct information so he doesn't have a yacht and a subsidy?
Most Americans don't want to be treated like they're guilty until proven innocent. But if you want to control costs, you've got to assume scammers want to take advantage of the goodies. So you've got to stop the scammers.
That doesn't help you sell your plan to the honest people. And that's not smart.

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