Today, Mark Hemingway of the conservative National Review wrote an aricle on a family that is petitioning for the expansion of the S-Chip program. Here is his analysis of the Wilkersons:

On the conference call, Dara [mom] admitted to me that she and Brian [dad] had been talking about having children since before they were married. She further admitted that after they were married she voluntarily left a job at a country club that had good health insurance, because the situation was “unmanageable.” From there she took a job at a restaurant with no health insurance, and the couple went on to have a baby anyway, presuming that others would pay for it and certainly long before they knew their daughter would have a heart defect that probably cost the gross national product of Burkina Faso to fix. But not knowing about future health problems is the reason we have insurance in the first place.

For Dara and Brian Wilkerson, the fact that they don’t have health insurance is less about falling through the cracks than the decisions they’ve made. We know that Dara is at least capable of getting a job with insurance — so why does she not have one now?

Notice that Dara "admits" she wanted to have children and "admits" that she quit one job to take another. Like those are some types of crimes. But then Dara commits the biggest crime of all, "she went on to have a baby anyway" and then it had the nerve to have a congenital heart defect.

Aren't these the same folks who take on a condesceding tone when addressing anyone who doesn't have children? Don't conservatives believe that family is the backbone of the whole universe? Apparently, now you should only have one if you can pay $1200 a month for their insurance. But Mark's comments do not only betray a little bit of hypocrisy, they also sound like a judgment from the past.

I guess the fundamental divide is this. Conservatives believe that health insurance is something you should have to pay for either with work or cash. And if you cannot, you better be able to show how dirt poor you are. This is the exact same position they held in the 19th century. Progressives believe that in the year 2007 a country with our wealth can give everyone health insurance and that the floor is higher than it was in the 19th century. In other words, as time passes, we should be able to make life better for everyone and we should not have to accept the Darwinian conditions of the past. Its called advancing civilization.