What I can't understand

I listened to the Connection on NPR this morning, and host Dick Gordon brought on two employers from Ohio to discuss the climate of our economy. One of the major issues was the increasing cost of health care, and how it plays a role insuring that employers aren't able to compete with manufacturing firms in China and elsewhere on the Pacific Rim. In some cases, health care can cost $6 an hour per employee, and that only is more than the hourly wage of an overseas worker. For American businesses to compete on the global market, health care costs is one issue to look at.

The simplest solution I can think of for this problem is socialized health care for all Americans. Take the cost of out the employers and employees hands, see how much money you can slash from the bloated $400+ billion Pentagon budget, and wah-lah. The problem of health care costs suddenly disappears without a tax increase.

It just surprises me that with all these complaints about the cost of health care from both employers and employees, on top of the over 45 million Americans who are uninsured (and how many more are underinsured?), nobody brings up this very reasonable option. The absolute removal of socialized health care from the options we as a nation have to control health care costs can only be thought of as a huge victory for the Republicans.