Brummett asseses Gov. Mike Beebe’s modest effort to nudge the state legislature toward implementing locally controlled health care exchanges and the Republican Party’s all-in bet that obstruction of universal health care is the winning hand.

Powerful lobbies, including market sectors that will profit from broader health coverage, might help Beebe and Democrats in time. But this is presuming Republicans are unsuccessful in continuing the so-far successful campaign to convince people that “government health care” is a terrible thing and that Medicare and Medicaid and subsidies for private coverage and coverage of sick people and coverage of young people are likewise terrible things.

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I am not confident sanity will prevail. Already, Republicans seem to be making important inroads in convincing voters that millionaires are being put upon and the correct way to balance the budget is to kill thousands of jobs by curtailing federal spending and raising taxes on the working poor, who aren’t paying enough to support the lifestyles of rich and famous.

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