Mike Thompson: “Listening to the debate, listening to the discussion this morning, I am once again reminded of what passes for policy…”

“Listening to the debate, listening to the discussion this morning, I am once again reminded of what passes for policy discourse nowadays. I was reminded of the article that was written by David Broder in the Washington Post yesterday. Mr. Broder is obviously one of the most respected members of the press corps. Some refer to him as the dean. He is certainly not right of center. I don't know what you would call him except a very thoughtful, highly respected individual. As I listened to this debate this morning, I thought a few of his words would be appropriate. He says this: The Senate debate over the Patients' Bill of Rights has become, in large part, a battle of anecdotes. . . . Backers of the Kennedy-McCain-Edwards bill, the sweeping legislation President Bush has threatened to veto, come armed each day with stories about the youngsters whose brain tumor was missed because an HMO denied his parents' request for a specialist referral or the mother whose breast cancer was ignored until it was too late. Mr. Broder goes on later in the article and says: Would that the issue were that simple and straightforward. But it is not. Anecdotal evidence, no matter how powerful, gives no guidance to the scope of the problem being addressed. Later on in the article he says: Still less do the anecdotes define the proper remedy.…”