{"id":306,"date":"2010-03-22T07:07:50","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T07:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/roddreher\/2010\/03\/is-the-health-care-light-an-oncoming-train.html"},"modified":"2010-03-22T07:07:50","modified_gmt":"2010-03-22T07:07:50","slug":"is-the-health-care-light-an-oncoming-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/roddreher\/2010\/03\/is-the-health-care-light-an-oncoming-train.html","title":{"rendered":"Is the health care light an oncoming train?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t have a strong opinion about the health care debate, which has now been resolved in the Democrats’ favor<\/a>. Sorry. I think we have a lousy system now, but I have serious doubts about this reform, especially coming as the government plunges headlong into insolvency. I wish to associate myself with this view of Ross Douthat’s<\/a>:<\/p>\n

This newfound confidence has been palpable throughout the health care debate. Yes, liberals have wrung their hands over the compromises required to pass the bill. But nothing has dislodged their fundamental assumption — an assumption straight out of the golden age of ’60’s liberalism — that a bill this costly, this complicated and this risky can be made to work, so long as the right people are in charge of implementing it.
\nAs a conservative, I suspect they’re wrong. But now that the bill has passed, as a citizen of the United States, I dearly hope they’re right. Indeed, I hope that 20 years from now, in an America that’s healthier, richer and more solvent than today, a liberal can brandish this column and say “I told you so.” Because the alternative would mean that we’re all about to be very sorry, and for a very long time to come.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t have a strong opinion about the health care debate, which has now been resolved in the Democrats’ favor. Sorry. I think we have a lousy system now, but I have serious doubts about this reform, especially coming as the government plunges headlong into insolvency. I wish to associate myself with this view of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics"],"yoast_head":"\nIs the health care light an oncoming train? - Rod Dreher<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/roddreher\/2010\/03\/is-the-health-care-light-an-oncoming-train.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is the health care light an oncoming train? - Rod Dreher\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I don’t have a strong opinion about the health care debate, which has now been resolved in the Democrats’ favor. 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