Paul Krugman makes a strong pitch for pushing through affordable national healthcare now. The Wall Street Journal’s Kim Strassel suggests the Democrats are sneaking a healthcare plan through, already, via the expansion of SCHIP and Medicare.

Of course, all the ’sneaking’ is being done in broad daylight, with full media access to the policy changes, unlike the signing statements, insider legal memos, and secrets classified as confidential for so-called national security reasons, the sort of stuff the Bush administration was famous for. About that kind of ’sneaking’ Strassel remained predictably silent.

But Krugman doesn’t go far enough in defining why and how the Democrats should proceed to make healthcare a centerpiece of the new president’s economic agenda. One of the basics that policy analysts often overlook is the obvious fact that a healthy citizenry is simply more productive, which boosts the GDP. What Republican argument can there be against increased productivity and a concomitant rise in profit?

Preventive health care, especially, is a proven economic boon, not only boosting productivity, but lowering the overall cost of the nation’s healthcare.

The most important of Krugman’s points are:

1) the still not peaking “high unemployment means a sharp rise in the number of Americans without health insurance. ”

2) quasi-universal coverage is not as expensive as many assume (especially compared to the astronomic sums we’ve recently been treated to with the Iraq War, the bank bailouts and the stimulus proposals).

3) aiding families in their acquisition of healthcare coverage is an economic stimulus in itself, as it’s another consumer purchase.

4) rising populism makes the timing fortuitous.

It’s that latter point that should catch the attention of every liberal, because more argumentation that capitalizes on the public’s mood needs to be advanced RIGHT NOW.

If a CEO gets a multimillion dollar bonus on our dime, shouldn’t a working American be able to get a flu shot? A physical? A breast or prostate exam?

Almost everyone knows at least one family whose lives went to hell because of an illness, injury or accident that destroyed them financially. If ours is to be called a great nation or a moral leader, how can we continue to make that claim while abandoning families when the fates have them hurting and in the hour of their greatest need for relief?

Marriages have broken up so the custodial parent can gain healthcare for their children. (Don’t scoff; it was a key factor in my decision to separate and I doubt that I’m some sort of exception in that regard).

Healthcare has been a major political football throughout my life. One of our longest-serving Senators, Ted Kennedy, has had it on his agenda throughout his entire career and has had to settle for incremental changes that have only benefited the old and the young. Yet free employer-provided coverage was a staple of my parent’s generation, so most working people have seen healthcare benefits go backward in the past 40 years.

The failed Clinton healthcare initiative in the Nineties helped doom Hillary’s presidential campaign. Isn’t it time that liberals, whatever pet issues they have as individuals, coalesce in their efforts to gain a huge win for the majority of Americans, so more people can free up our collective energies to focus on those other issues?

Republicans and libertarians have spent thre quarters of a century trying to undo Social Security and it’s high time for another great program to be passed and to become entrenched that can also succeed spectacularly. Social Security did lift most seniors out of poverty, which is why most Americans defend it from the deleterious efforts of the well-off skinflints. Healthcare has a similar potential to boost the fortunes of most Americans by keeping them in tip-top health without breaking their bank accounts.

So what good reason can any liberal suggest for NOT pursuing this great policy change at this time? Take a moment; I’d love to hear any logical reason to the argument for affordable healthcare right now, at this golden moment.