[The Non-Euclidean Blog] If You Trust That Bridge...

[NEB‏]

It's one thing to say you're absolutely confident the bridge you built will stand. It's another thing entirely to take the first semi across it. US House Representative Artur Davis (D-AL) recommends that if Congress plans to create a public health insurance option, its members should be forced to use it:

On Friday, I introduced legislation that would apply to members of Congress the same policies and burdens that we are about to lay on our constituents. Specifically, if Congress passes a public plan as an alternative to private health plans, I would require that most congressmen be automatically enrolled in that public plan....In addition, I would require that if additional income taxes are placed on the income of certain Americans, that members of Congress are subjected to the same taxation, even if their personal income levels would not have otherwise exposed them to higher taxes.

Yes, I think I like that. I'm still not convinced a public health insurance option will work at all; at least, not without bankrupting the government and gutting service. But if we must have one, let's all take that ride together. I'll have more confidence in a public option if I know the reps lighting that rocket have tied themselves to it.

(Not that I expect this to actually happen, of course. It's just a nice idea, rhetoric that should play well in Davis's gubernatorial campaign. Yes, Davis wants to be governor of Alabama in 2010. I admire the sentiment behind the legislation, but it's less impressive when the guy who introduced it is working hard to be gone before it affects him.)

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Posted By NEB to The Non-Euclidean Blog at 7/18/2009 05:06:00 PM