Have you ever wondered exactly WHAT is included in "health care spending?" So have I. Nobody, ever, has itemized that little bit of information, and believe me, I've looked. Does it include research and development? Costs of approving drugs? The creation of advanced health technologies that other nations get to buy off the shelf?

The reason national health care systems go broke is because they are, in economic terms, an engine with the accelerator wide open and no governor. When something is perceived as "free," the demand goes up endlessly. This is France's main problem right now.

We could nationalize the U.S. health care system. The end result would be rationing, in one form or another, and distribution driven not by economic, but political forces.

I am constantly told to imagine a Democratic administration with the intelligence powers of the current one. So why don't you imagine our entire health care system run, top to bottom, by the current administration?