The Vanderbilt Torch

Dr. Edwards Is In...Unfortunately

John Edwards recently called for mandatory preventive care checkups. According to the AP, Edwards told a crowd about his plan. "It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care. If you are going to be in the system, you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK." This means there must be a paper trail detailing that each citizen went to a doctor every year. Consequently, we would need a massive new federal bureaucracy to track each individual American’s health history and document said paper trail. To pay for this, the government would take more tax money out of my wallet...wait, how does this solve the problem? Edwards' plan would likely also induce some sort of penalties to punish those who skip their checkups, or as Democrats are calling it now, to "encourage" citizens to attend these mandatory doctors appointments.

Changing of the Guard at G.O.P.

Shortly after the 2006 midterm elections in which the Republican Party lost both of its congressional majorities, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman announced that he would step down as the party’s organizational leader. President Bush decided to bring back the split-chairman structure from the 1980s, when President Reagan picked Senator Paul Laxalt for general chairman and Frank Fahrenkopf for the chairman. Under this system, the general chairman is the face of the party, raising money, focusing on outreach, and speaking for the party; Mel Martinez is the new general chairman. The chairman operates the day-to-day party apparatus. Mike Duncan, the RNC’s current general counsel and former treasurer, will serve in this role.