Hannity and Limbaugh make my head hurt too. Glenn is probably my favorite out of the bunch.
The public university, standard of living, and health care ideas are great ideas, but the problem is that they are not compatible with a free market economy. The problem comes down to staffing really. Doctors go through a lot to get where they are, without that incentive, less people would go after it, and we’d be stuck with lesser quality medical care.
A minimum standard of living takes away the incentive to pursue high stress/regulations/etc of a high-end, high-paying job in any industry, not just medicine. That lowers the standard of living for everyone. It’s unfortunate, but that’s how it has to be.