The Senator would be Emperor (of Healthcare, at least)

Today's WSJ:

At a recent debate, [Mr. Obama] drove the point home, asking Mrs. Clinton, "You can mandate it but there will still be people who can't afford it. And if they can't afford it, what are you going to fine them? Are you going to garnish their wages?" And in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Mrs. Clinton conceded that "we will have an enforcement mechanism" that might include "you know, going after people's wages."

Well, well. In other words, HillaryCare II isn't all about "choice," but would require financial penalties for people to pay attention, including garnishing wages. To put it more accurately, the individual mandate is really a government mandate that requires brute force plus huge subsidies to get anywhere near its goal of universal coverage.

Let the people choose for themselves, please.



DISCLOSURE: I am long 2008.DEM.NOM.OBAMA (and also long 2008.DEM.NOM.CLINTON)

UPDATE: After getting some ribbing on this disclosure, I am extending it to say than I am short 2008.PRES.CLINTON, short 2008.DEM.NOM.GORE, and was also short 2008.DEM.NOM.EDWARDS earlier, but am flat now.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

Or to look at it another way, if Hillary Clinton's entire agenda were enacted, her climate change proposals would wind up doing more to improve public health than would her health care proposals.--Matt Yglesias, via Tyler Cowen

UPDATE: Oh, that's why it's got to be universal. Steve Bainbridge says:

On the radio driving to work today, I heard a report that Hillary Clinton’s campaign workers not only are going unpaid, but also now have lost their health care benefits.