Interviewed on 93.9 FM in Columbia, Roy Blunt, R-Springfield, said that one could argue that government shouldn’t be involved in health care at all.
“The government did get into the health care business in a big way in 1965 with Medicare and later with Medicaid. And government already distorts the marketplace. A government competitor would drive all of the other competitors away. What we should be doing is creating more competition,” he said...
Democrats in Washington were quick to call attention to Blunt’s remarks. The seven-term congressman may have been speaking hypothetically about competition. But it’s a good bet that his remarks will be construed one day in political ads to say that he opposes the popular Medicare program, the way America sees to the health needs of people 65 and over.
http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/political-fix/political-fix/2009/07/blunt-medicare-medicaid-distorts-the-marketplace/His formidable Democratic opponent: http://www.robincarnahan.com/