Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The History of Health Care in America


Thomas Nast originated the use of the elephant as a cartoonist's symbol for the Republican Party. Mike Luckovich employs it here to represent the GOP position on health care reform. Do you think it's a fair characterization? Why or why not?





Nast certainly seemed to think that government moved slowly, based on this 1877 piece in
Harper's Weekly entitled The Lighning Speed of Honesty. Uncle Sam (another iconic Nast brainchild) rides the snail of Congress.


David Horsey goes back to 1909 for a look at policy reform. His Republican president, Teddy Roosevelt (or is it Wm. Howard Taft?) seems to advocate reform, but Congress is dragging its feet. Who remembers which party controlled Congress then?

Your fun Congressional trivia fact for the day is that the Republicans held majorities in both Senate (60 to 32) and House (219 to 172).

1 comment:

Bee said...

Anything done by committee seems to require excessive amounts of time and argument.

This doesn't entirely explain the balking elephant, though.