“A big part of opposition to the health-care plan is a sense of historical context.“In the 1930s….the federal government was still small and relatively lean….America pushed on, creating what it created: federal programs, departments and initiatives, Social Security. In the mid-1960s, Government hadn’t claimed new territory in a generation, and it pushed on—creating Medicare, Medicaid, new domestic programs of all kinds.
“Now the national terrain is thick with federal programs....We are a nation fully settled by government….We know its costs both in terms of money and autonomy, even as we know it has made many of our lives more secure, and helped many to feel encouragement.
“But we know the price now. This is the historical context….It’s a world America has been to. It isn’t new to us. And we don’t have too many illusions about it.”
Peggy Noonan, October 2009
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