GOP Needs To Highlight Health Care Reform as Issue
The debate about health care reform could "signal whether the GOP is capable of rediscovering its free-market principles," Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel writes in an opinion piece.
According to Strassel, Democrats until recently "have been alone in offering a comprehensive answer to the problem: government-run health care." Democrats "never offer details" about the problems associated with such a system, but they have "an easy-to-describe 'plan,' which is more than can be said of" Republicans, Strassel writes.
"There's plenty of big ideas" in health care proposals from President Bush, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) "over which conservatives can argue," but the "important thing is that the debate equals education, which equals understanding, which equals precisely what the GOP needs right now," according to Strassel.
The Democratic takeover of Congress offers Republicans "quality time to hash through" the health care debate, "and, if they're smart, that'll be a priority," she writes, adding, "Republicans need to figure out what they believe" (Strassel, Wall Street Journal, 3/23).