DAVID BERNSTEIN:

If private companies had mismanaged outpatient care for veterans the way the V.A. system has, there would be strong calls from all the usual quarters for a government takeover, and proclamations of how we can’t trust “greedy” for-profit companies to take care of veterans. Funny how this thought process doesn’t seem to work in reverse, except among “free market ideologues,” who have been criticizing the V.A. for years.

Plus, a look at the claim that people who don’t believe in government do a bad job running it, with the unfortunate but not surprising conclusion that people who do believe in government also do a bad job running it . . .

UPDATE: More political contradictions on health care.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ouch.