Newsweek: New Hillarycare 'Bold, but Hardly Radical'

     Newsweek’s Jonathan Darman must set a very high bar for what he deems radical.

     In the September 17 issue of Newsweek, Darman’s story, “How She Would Govern,” tried to give readers a glimpse of a Hillary Clinton presidency. The story compared the Hillary of old with the Hillary running for the Democratic nomination and used her health care plan as an example.

     Although the plan has yet to be unveiled, Newsweek apparently already has an idea of what it will entail. “Her health-care plan, which will be announced in the coming weeks, is expected to be bold, but hardly radical,” wrote Darman.

     But, if Hillary Clinton’s own Web site is an indication of what’s to come, it’s obvious achieving the label of “radical” would be quite a feat at Newsweek.

     “[W]e have to change the way we finance health care,” Clinton said in a video posted on her Web site. “And that’s going to mean taking away money from people who make out really well right now.”

     Clinton has not been shy about where “universal health care,” as she plainly stated on her Web site, will rank in the order of campaign priorities.

     “So, we don’t only need candidates to talk about it,” Clinton said. “And, we don’t need candidates to just have a plan. We’re all going to have plans, that’s not in doubt. We need a movement. We need people to make this the number one voting in the ’08 election to send a message to the Congress and the special interest. We’re serious and we’re going to get it done this time.”

     But expanding a very expensive government entitlement by taking more from personal income isn’t radical to Newsweek. It would certainly be frightening to imagine what is.