Welfare Reform = Socialized Medicine

Again, one of my favorite themes in politics is the unintended consequence.

It turns out that Medicaid is being turned into the nation's health care safety net for the working poor as a conscious effort to help folks stay off the welfare rolls.

The full story here:

It makes sense, and amazingly, the Republicans have been both practical and thoughtful. As one said, "The original sin of social policy was tying Medicaid directly to welfare. Now, it's tied to working." In short, it's a needed net for people who are already at the tipping point regarding work and paying the bills.

Of course, the GOP can't take credit for it because they're trapped in their antediluvian mindset that anything from the government is tainted beyond belief, so I will hereby crow that the Democrats are completely responsible for this bold and far-sighted initiative and dare the GOP to disagree.

Many have written and said that the answer to the uncovered was just expand Medicare. Why reinvent the wheel when we've already got the system and the business model in place.

Thanks again, to our great and glorious former President Clinton, who succeeded in ending "welfare as we know it." He'd have known how to handle the New Orleans flood. After all, Louisiana voted for him.