“What I was trying to do was to look at the things, as best as you can predict it now, that are going to be there a year and a half from now,” he said. “Iraq may get better; Iraq may get worse. We may be successful in Iraq; we may not be. I don’t know the answer to that. That’s in the hands of other people. But what we do know for sure is the terrorists are going to be at war with us a year, a year and a half from now.”
Then there's his health care plan, that sounds like a test-run for privatizing social security, and even more dangerous.
Instead of employer-based insurance or, as some Democrats have proposed, government-mandated insurance, he favors a $15,000 tax exemption that taxpayers would use toward the purchase of their own policies. (Those too poor to benefit from the exemption would receive some kind of voucher from the government.)
The consumer could decide how much to spend on the insurance policy, keeping anything left over for either a health savings account or investment in a retirement fund. Critics have said this incentive to buy cheap policies offering little coverage for preventive care would lead patients to visit the doctor only after becoming very ill and would therefore ultimately place a greater burden on the health care system.
The rich get private insurance and the poor get government vouchers? Kids are going to be dependent upon their parents being fiscally savvy and responsible enough to wade through the minutiae of health insurance policies and keep the payments on them current in order to be insured?
Other Rudy priorities: reforming the legal system and appointing “strict constructionist” judges.
Oh, and Rudy's willing to pay attention to education now, compared to his failure in this area as Mayor:
Mr. Giuliani has often been faulted for the turmoil and lack of progress in the New York school system during his years as mayor. And while in New Hampshire several months ago, he acknowledged that education was one area where he had not achieved the kind of change he had hoped.
His plan: to give parents more choice and reduce bureaucracy. How? He's not sure yet but he'll know in the next several months.
I think America needs to embark on a 12 step plan to rid itself of the notion that this former head of a municipality and ex-prosecutor of a single federal district who just happened to say the right thing to the cameras after an unexpected tragedy six years ago is qualified to be President. It's time to detox.
