Health Nuts

Universal health care is going to be the single biggest domestic policy issue next year, and Barack Obama has tallied up the prospective costs of his program:

Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s plan for universal health care for all Americans require $50 billion to $65 billion in new revenue, according to estimates released this morning by his campaign.

Which is roughly what we've spent on Cooter's Folly so far this year, just to put it into perspective. Ask the British; this is the sort of decision successful but fading empires eventually are faced with -- $2 bn per week to referee a civil war, or half that to make sure people have at least some level of health care?