From the (Madison) Capital Times this morning:

Editorial: Bush Health Care Deform

I've always been kind of slow to bash the President, because, well, he is the President. And I think someone who receives an education in public policy/whatever your school calls it learns to have a certain amount of respect for anyone in public office. You gain an understanding that they are in office and ran for office to try to do the right thing for the people they represent. But the State of the Union got me thinking about something I said in 2000. Both George W Bush and Al Gore ran for President because they thought that was what they were supposed to do. People would have thought it was bizarre had Gore, as incumbent VP, not run, and as for Deuce, what would you do if you were a governor and your dad was once President?

So what's the point? People have remarked that Bush seems not to care that his approval numbers are low and that he makes unpopular decisions. I believe this is because he governs for himself. Again, I hear the argument that every elected official does this, but Bush has gone above and beyond in terms of selfish governance. He found an excuse to invade Iraq, gave Americans tax cuts that no sober economist would have advised, and sat idly by for two of the biggest disasters of the last century (the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina). He has run up a massive national debt and proposed a "solution" that will be incomplete when he leaves office.

And now there's this healthcare situation. I believe he sees it as loaves of bread from the Republican Party to poor and middle-class Americans. I understand that one in six people in the US are uninsured, and that's a problem. But this plan doesn't solve it. An article in the Washington Post yesterday, which now I can't find, remarked that West Coast and Northeastern Members of Congress (MoCs) were irritated because this would affect their middle class citizens. They're right. Middle class in Fairfax County, VA, for example, means that your family income is between $72,000 and $120,000 per year. Contrast that with Wichita, KS, where a middle class family earns between $41,000 and $60,000 per year. Taxing employer contributions to insurance for those earning over $75,000 is not going to help this situation. I'll let the editorial say it for me.