Increasingly massive and volatile, the health care debate has drawn everything from medical costs to to grocery shopping into its orbit. Why does this issue cut so deeply?
As a guest blogger on the Washington Post.com’s Short Stack on August 26, James A. Morone, who is co-author, with David Blumenthal, of The Heart of Power, finds that the fiery debate is fueled by a combustible combination of three elements: simple disagreement about government’s role in health care, free-floating fear and anxiety about the country as a whole, and the bitter battle for political power. Morone discusses how past attempts at health care reform by Presidents FDR, Truman, JFK, Nixon, Carter, and Clinton can inform today’s debate and offer powerful lessons for future policy.
