One Important Question in the Blossoming Health Care Debate

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Universal health care is already shaping up to be a central theme of the 2008 presidential campaign, with Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards all strongly in favor.

Here’s my question. If

(1) Obama, Clinton, and Edwards are prepared to stand by their pledges to provide health care for all Americans, and

(2) Congressional democrats are prepared to stand by their pledges for a balanced budget, then

(3) Are the aforementioned candidates prepared to raise taxes?

Edwards is on the record with a response, and I respect it. “Edwards: Universal Health Care Trumps Balanced Budget.” Barack and Hillary, what say you?

Update: More evidence that Edwards has taken the lead on this from Ezra Klein. Worth checking out; the man speaks honestly and openly about the tough choices America will have to make when setting its priorities for the next presidential term.

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Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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