Name That President
Read the following quote, and try to guess which U.S. president made this statement:
“A responsible budget is not our only weapon to control inflation. We must act now to protect all Americans from healthcare costs that are rising $1 million per hour, 24 hours a day, doubling every 5 years. We must take control of the largest contributor to that inflation – skyrocketing hospital costs.”
Would you be surprised to learn that those words came out of the mouth of…Jimmy Carter? It might be hard to remember, but Carter was essentially a fiscally conservative Democrat. Probably more fiscally conservative than Ronald Reagan was during his presidency. But in any case, Carter’s entire vision of healthcare reform was to control healthcare costs. Not a vision easy to get many people excited about, as Paul Ryan has no doubtedly discovered more recently. That might explain why Jimmy Carter got nowhere in reforming the U.S. healthcare system.
(Click here to view comments)