Boehner: I Hate SCHIP Because it Works too Well

The other day Brendan Nyhan caught George W. Bush lapsing into weird honesty on his opposition to expanding SCHIP. The problem, as Bush saw it, was that if these kids become insured, that might put us on a slippery slope to a dystopian future in which all kids and then all people have health insurance. Can't have that.

Today, John Boehner does him one better, grounding his opposition to SCHIP expansion on the idea that "Dragging people out of private health insurance to put them into a government-run program is ‘Hillary care’ come back.” But note here that while it's true that there will be some displacement of private health insurance here, nobody would actually be "dragged" out of the private sector. Rather, people would shift out of it if and only if SCHIP was a better overall deal. Which, of course, it almost certainly will be. Which, as Boehner kind of explained, is exactly why Republicans are dead set against expanding it.

Photo by Flickr user David Bolton used under a Creative Commons license

Comments

The naked faced cruelty of modern conservatism laid bare before the nation...
But of course an army of sophists wait in the wings to explain why what the republicans did is actually a good thing and that it will be good for them at the polls.

It's hard to know who to loath more, the actors or the chorus.

Posted by Northern Observer | July 25, 2007 9:40 AM

"...Too Well," Matt.

Posted by tb | July 25, 2007 9:46 AM

Matt, for the love of all that is holy, stop, stop, stop! with the pictures. I know the Atlantic editors want color and interesting graphics, but these tangentially related photos are getting more and more disturbing.

This one beats the last one with the duct tape redneck.

Posted by Klug | July 25, 2007 10:42 AM

tangentially related photos

It's a sick kid to illustrate a post about children's health care. That's not tangential!

Posted by Matthew Yglesias | July 25, 2007 10:54 AM

You got me there. A better example would be the APC down a few posts. But after this photo, I still need a unicorn!

Posted by Klug | July 25, 2007 12:17 PM

The naked faced cruelty of modern conservatism laid bare before the nation...

Modern conservatism is a pre-teen with pimples?

the duct tape redneck He was an Englishman, if you followed the links to his page--can Englishmen qualify as rednecks?

Posted by rea | July 25, 2007 12:24 PM

With slams like that already happening, it is clear that Hillary will only unite the GOP once again -- not around any principle, but around mud-slinging politics. I am not looking forward to Hillary as the nominee.

Posted by AnyoneButHillary | July 25, 2007 12:38 PM

"He was an Englishman, if you followed the links to his page--can Englishmen qualify as rednecks?"

Yes.

Posted by Reality Man | July 25, 2007 1:16 PM

"nobody would actually be "dragged" out of the private sector. Rather, people would shift out of it if and only if SCHIP was a better overall deal."

Fair point. But remember that the same is true for most of the social security privatization plans that were on the table 2004-05. Did you and will you defend the voluntary nature of those plans too?

Posted by CBS | July 25, 2007 5:29 PM

With slams like that already happening, it is clear that Hillary will only unite the GOP once again -- not around any principle, but around mud-slinging politics.
If Jesus Christ himself were their opponent he would cause the GOP to unite around mud-slinging politics. It works and it's a lot easier than trying to rationally explain why their policies are better.

Posted by daveNYC | July 25, 2007 8:49 PM