Hillary Groks the Fullness

Hillary did a "full Ginsburg" this weekend, hitting all five Sunday talk shows on the same day.  And of course, she talked up her health-care plan.  According to Time:

She even giggled her way through questions about whether the health care proposal she announced last week amounted to socialized medicine.

Deflecting criticism from her Republican and Democratic opponents, Clinton called it a “moral imperative” for the country to provide coverage for the estimated 47 million people without health insurance.

Republican Rudy Giuliani has described the plan as a “march toward socialized medicine.” Democrat John Edwards has accused her of copying his plan, and he and Sen. Joe Biden both have said she is too divisive to get the job done.

In this rare instance, I think Edwards is right; the Clinton plan is essentially the Edwards plan–not the centrist, market-friendly compromise Hillary tries to portray it as, but a full-on federal mandate that would cost a significant chunk of change, even by her estimate:

Clinton’s plan would require businesses to provide insurance for employees, and the wealthy would pay higher taxes to help defray costs for those less able to pay for it. She put the government’s cost at $110 billion a year.

She said she would pay for it through higher taxes and making the health care system more efficient. [emph added]

And, like Edwards, she’d pay for the plan through higher taxes.  So tell me again how this isn’t a big-government plan?