Eeeeasy Tiger

Harold Ford Jr. is urging the President and Congress to slow their roll on a new Health Care policy because we just haven't looked at the data carefully enough:

I don`t mean to suggest to the White House that health care`s not important, that it should not be pushed, but we now have to sit back, take stock of the data that we have, take an inventory, understand what direction we have to move and how much political capital that will take.

Yeah, some 60 odd years after President Truman called for a national health care policy, after decades of rapidly expanding health care costs far above the rate of inflation, its time to sit back and do some more research.

A new health care program, like the latest one proposed by the Senate and the President, is not only necessary from a policy point of view, but from a political point of view its critical towards any future success for the Democrats in Congress. If all we have to run on in 2010 is bailouts and a few road projects, we're fucked.

From a political point of view, the Cap and Trade bill has far more potential to be politically damaging with little in the way of political capital gained. But in terms of earning or keeping the faith of the American people, we have to get ourselves on the path to long term stability, and our current health insurance system is a severe tax and drain on our economy.