Henninger: The Blue Dogs’ Final Dilemma is Health Care - WSJ.com

Henninger: The Blue Dogs’ Final Dilemma is Health Care - WSJ.com

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The health care debate is really about something much deeper. Henninger adroitly describes the tug-of-war between the private sector and the public sector as drivers of our economic health and personal well-being. This debate is much deeper than health care.

"With President Obama’s health-care bill, the forces that across 40 years grew into unbridgeable opposition to each other could not be more plain to see. American politics has arrived at a crossroads.

This struggle over health-care legislation isn’t just another battle between the Democratic and Republican parties. It’s about which force is going to take the United States forward for the next generation: the public sector or the private sector. If by now you haven’t figured out which sector you are in, then you’re a Blue Dog Democrat"

The Blue Dogs and other moderates have been sliding to this final dilemma for years. The issue is not whether one is for or against “government.” The issue is: Do they work for us, or do we work for them?"

Consider the massive public sector costs that would require ever more taxes on private and business activities at both the state and federal level. We are in an era of potentially huge public policy shifts that may make Americans ever more reliant on government.

"The problem is that in Washington and many states the public sector’s revenue needs have arrived at a point where space for the private economy is more or less beside the point. That is the clear message of the California and New York budget crises and the difficulties of financing the Obama health-care plan.

For centrists in both parties the moment has come to decide which side of the public-private divide they want the U.S. and its future workers to be on. Trying to live in both has brought us, inevitably, to that decision."

This is not a good thing for our country. How can anyone argue that racking up huge public debt and massive tax increases with no hope of repayment is good for America? This reaches far beyond party affiliation.