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Political pundit Peggy Noonan, who writes a weekly column for the Wall Street Journal, has a precious personal anecdote from the health care reform bill drama.
Noonan, who was in Sarasota Jan. 25 to speak at an event to raise money for the Ringling College Library Association, tells Coffee Talk that a close friend of hers was scheduled for surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston Jan. 20 — the day after Scott Brown was elected as U.S. Senator in the Bay State to replace the late Ted Kennedy.
The friend texted Noonan from a gurney in the hospital, just before he was given anesthesia.
“'Everybody I have talked to in this hospital, orderlies, nurses and doctors, they are all giddy over Scott Brown,'” Noonan says her friend texted her. “'And I don't think any of them are Republicans.'”
Coffee Talk can hardly think of a more perfect illustration of the folly that can ensue when the federal government tries to take over a chunk of the U.S. economy, like it has done with the health care bill.
The Brown victory, of course, put President Obama's healthcare reform bill in jeopardy because it gave the Republican Party 41 senators — enough to filibuster any proposed bill. Noonan, probably like many Massachusetts residents, was hopeful the Brown victory would give the Obama health care reform machine a moment of pause.
But Noonan doesn't sound too optimistic that Obama would listen to those voices. “I wish he would start over and do the whole thing again,” says Noonan. “But it looks like he won't.”
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