Columns

President Barack Obama has said repeatedly that he wants "ideas that work." In spite of this, leading Democrats are working hard on plans for health care reform that will fail.

These plans, pushed by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and others, seek to extend coverage to everyone by mandating the purchase of private insurance, with perhaps an option to buy into a public plan. They would ease this purchase through an "insurance exchange," while subsidizing premiums for those with low incomes.

A lady called our office last week hoping to persuade one of us to "share" one of the new Lincoln bicentennial pennies with her. While we were sympathetic that she has not been able to find one, we weren't about to mail one of the keepsakes to a perfect stranger.

It's not like the pennies have been showing up in pocket change.

Many Kentuckians, just like many across the country, are struggling to get by during this economic crisis. Unemployment is at a 25-year high. Too many have seen their hard-earned savings dwindle. And people are worried about paying for education, health care or the mortgage.

At a time like this, Americans have a right to expect that as they are cutting back, so is their government.

Paradoxically, in this time of almost crushing concern over the state of our nation, the inauguration of a new President ushers in, at least briefly, a period of palpable hope.

Hope for a better economy, for demonstrable progress in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East, and for improvements in everything from climate change to education to Social Security to health care. Indeed, optimism abounds even as things seem to be falling down all around us. It's the American way.

But those aren't the only things we have to feel hopeful about. Or, for that matter, to worry about.