Vermont's liberal governor abandons single-payer plan because state couldn't handle the taxes

I'm honestly not sure if much comment is needed here. I could write out seven or eight lines' worth of "ha ha ha ha" but I'm sure you've already got the idea:

Calling it the biggest disappointment of his career, Gov. Peter Shumlin said Wednesday he was abandoning plans to make Vermont the first state in the country with a universal, publicly funded health care system. Going forward with a project four years in the making would require tax increases too big for the state to absorb, Shumlin said. The measure had been the centerpiece of the Democratic governor's agenda and was watched and rooted for by single-payer health care supporters around the country. "I am not going (to) undermine the hope of achieving critically important health care reforms for this state by pushing prematurely for single payer when it is not the right time for Vermont," Shumlin said to reporters and two boards advising him on health care changes. Legislation Shumlin signed in 2011 put the state on a path to move beyond the federal Affordable Care Act by 2017 to a health care system more similar to that in neighboring Canada. Shumlin adopted the mantra that access to quality health care should be "a right and not a privilege."

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The legislation called for the administration to produce a plan for financing the Green Mountain Care system by 2013 but it wasn't completed until the last several days. Shumlin said it showed the plan would require an 11.5 percent payroll tax on businesses and an income tax separate from the one the state already has of up to 9.5 percent. Shumlin said small business owners would be hit with both, and he repeatedly expressed concern about whether those businesses, many of which now don't offer health insurance or offer much less costly insurance, could cover the new expense.

I actually think Shumlin deserves credit here. He went all the way to the brink, ran the numbers just like the legislation said he had to do, and then he realized that going forward with the plan would absolutely devastate small business in the state. And at that point, Shumlin proved himself to be that rarest of liberals who wasn't willing to do that - not even if it meant disappointing the true believers who would do pretty much anything to get single-payer in place. I would ask if Barack Obama would do the same, but we already know the answer because ObamaCare is hurting small business right now and he still refuses to do anything about it. If you're wondering about Hillary Clinton, here's what she said when asked about small business owners who would not be able to afford the mandates built into HillaryCare: "I can't be responsible for the fate of every undercapitalized entrepreneur." Translation: If these stupid dreamers can't afford my mandates, they should give it up and go get a union job somewhere. The only real problem with Shumlin's decision at this point is his statement that he's backing away now because it's just not the right time, and he doesn't want to damage the viability of single-payer as an idea by trying it in Vermont when it's not in a position to succeed. That's a problem because the issue here has nothing to do with timing. Any time you tried to impose these kinds of taxes on the small business community, you would devastate them. You can blame the timing all you want, but even giving due credit to Gov. Shumlin for putting the interest of the businesses in his state ahead of the activists, timing is not the problem here. The problem is the idea itself. It's a bad idea. It always has been and it always will be. By the way, I disagree with Gov. Shumlin that this was a failure on his part. His job as governor is to make good decisions, and even though he made a bad decision to pursue single-payer in the first place, he made a good decision here. That's a success. Nice job, governor.