Cradle-to-grave Medicare.(Correction, Please!)

ITEM: Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), reported the North Adams (Mass.) Transcript for January 14, "sought to rally reeling Democrats Wednesday by prescribing a 'progressive vision for America'" The senator "also shed light on the upcoming congressional session.... He'll propose a decade-long expansion of Medicare, called Medicare for All. It's intended to provide healthcare for all citizens, 'from birth to the end of life,' he said."

ITEM: Kennedy's remarks, said E. J. Dionne in the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman for January 18, amounted to "a State of the Union address for liberals." The senator, commented Dionne, "suggested that Democrats could prevail not by retreating from their core principles, but by demonstrating that those principles were consistent with the values held by many Americans who call themselves conservative. Most moderates and many conservatives, for example, have nothing against the Democrats' commitment to expanding health coverage.... That's why Kenned)"s bold proposal to open Medicare to all Americans regardless of age is likely to appeal beyond liberal precincts."

CORRECTION: Even Teddy Kennedy doesn't pretend that authentic conservatives will jump on his womb-to-tomb Medicare bandwagon. Achieving "Medicare for All" won't be easy, admitted the senator (though the wire services ignored this part): "Rightwing forces will unleash false attack ads ranting against socialized medicine and government-run health care."

No doubt some will be unkind enough to mention that the unfunded present-value liability of Medicare is a whopping $62 trillion. This amount, the Wall Street Journal noted, "dwarfs even Social Security's $10 trillion." How will Kennedy's expansion be funded? ...