Your Government in Action

At the office today, I provided a little patient with a vaccine for travel, since her parents were planning to take the family to the Caribbean for a vacation. The patient's mother is a college graduate; they have private health insurance from the father's job. The insurance gives me a cut-rate, but I jovially offered instructions for travelling with children, tips on plane rides, etc.

At the close of the visit, the mother provided me with a form to continue her eligibility for WIC, a Federal Government program that provides free infant formula and food. I suppose I have only myself to blame, because I was one of the founders of this program, in the 1970's, when I arranged for its beginning in the South Bronx, a poverty area of well-deserved repute.
In 1978, I was the single largest purchaser of infant formula on the Eastern seaboard.

The trip that this educated, middle class family is planning to take is during peak holiday season. Why should they receive any subsidy from the taxpayer? I'd rather spend the money on defense. (See "Where I was when everything changed" 9/13/05).