The author of this pseudonymous NRO piece argues that there are great differences between the establishment of the National Health Service in Great Britain and Obamacare here. Hence, he concludes, those of us who do not want to be dependent upon government for health care should not despair. Although the NHS has become sacrosanct in Britain (even though it does a lousy job!), Obamacare is different.
My only quibble is with the military analogy. Waterloo was Napoleon’s last desperate gamble to regain power. Even if he had managed to beat the Prussian/Anglo-allied army at Waterloo, he would still have faced very long odds as the rest of the coalition that brought him down mobilized armies to take on an exhausted France. That’s not at all like Obama’s situation. A better analogy would be to Hitler and Stalingrad, where the Germans, at the height of their military power, wore themselves out fighting to take an objective they couldn’t hold and left them vulnerable to counter-attacks.
Much as I dislike comparing Americans who want the government to leave them alone to the Red Army, it’s time to attack and roll back the invaders!
