An earlier political maverick, Eugene McCarthy, once remarked, "Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it's important."
I'm clearly dumb enough, but I think I still need to figure out how the game works.
See, when I disagree with someone — say, my boss, for example — I try to work it out. We could very well end up at an impasse, but, more often than not, we manage to hammer out a compromise. (Or I lose.)
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But the last thing either of us does is "turn off and tune out." It doesn't accomplish anything.
So, with that in mind, I want to turn to those of you far more experienced than I. As we finally (mercifully) approach the end of this eternal campaign (six more days), we face two very divergent paths.
And at the risk of dropping the understatement of the season, we're part of a community that overwhelmingly supports U.S. Sen. John McCain, the candidate whose health care policy promises more sweeping change to the way we do business than anyone not named Clinton.
But then, I could be wrong. Maybe I read it wrong. I never got Kerouac either. As Robert Carroll (someone pretty good with numbers) wrote earlier this week in the Wall Street Journal, "The McCain health care insurance tax credit may well be one of the most misunderstood proposals of this presidential election." Check out the entire article here.
As we all know by now, Carroll explains that "[McCain] would replace the current income tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance with a refundable tax credit — $5,000 for those who purchase family coverage and $2,500 for individual coverage."
Carroll concludes in no uncertain terms that nearly everyone would be better off because McCain's (personal) tax credit would be greater than the subsidy (in the form of employer exclusions) provides.
But what do you think? Would we all be better off? Would we all still have work? Especially in this economy? And what is the alternative?
Can't wait to hear from you. And no matter what you do, don't forget to vote Tuesday.
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