David Brooks prefers single-payer to status quo

Conservative columnist David Brooks expressed support Sunday for a system of health care otherwise demonized in the press by the right wing. "I wouldn't mind a single-payer. Frankly I prefer a single-payer to what we have now," Brooks told ABC's Jake Tapper.

Brooks' support for single-payer comes late in the health care reform debate.

He was asked about single-payer on July 29th but deflected the question, writing, "I'm not that thrilled with the insurance companies." He also wrote, "There is no way something that big and complex and dynamic can be run out of Washington."

Brooks said he can't support the health reform passed by both houses of Congress. "I oppose it," he said. "It's a close call for me." He has consistently charged that health care cost controls are not enough to support the Democrats' bill.

Also appearing on ABC, liberal economist Paul Krugman argued, "There's a whole list of things that we think might control costs. This is going to be in the legislation, its something that's going to be tried. This is the first serious attempt that we've made to control health care costs and by doing that it actually proves something that people like me, advocates of universal coverage, have been saying... The only way to control costs is as part of a package that also covers the uninsured."

Brooks insisted, "I don't oppose it because I want to step on the necks of the poor."

This video is from ABC's This Week, broadcast Dec. 27, 2009.

Download video via RawReplay.com