The title of Hillary Clinton’s health care plan is “American Health Choices,” but how much flexibility would she really permit? Well, to paraphrase her husband,  that depends on what the meaning of “choice” is. On Sunday morning,  Hillary gave us a glimpse of how she defines the word:

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday she might be willing to garnish the wages of workers who refuse to buy health insurance to achieve coverage for all Americans.

Here’s how she fleshed that out when pressed on the point:

‘I think there are a number of mechanisms” that are possible, including ‘going after people’s wages, automatic enrollment.’

This is perfectly consistent with the Orwellian character of Hillary’s plan. For her, “putting the consumer in the driver’s seat” means a federal statute requiring him to buy insurance. Thus, it should be no surprise that “choice” means ”give us your money or we’ll take it out of your paycheck.”

Some commentators believe this will do Hillary considerable damage in the upcoming primaries, but I doubt it. Most of the people voting in the Democrat primaries are perfectly OK with Hillary as Big Sister.  They actually like socialism.

The general election will be a different matter, however. If the Republicans have any sense, admittedly a very big if, they’ll produce lots of ads that show Hillary talking about “going after people’s wages.” If the voters still want her after that, they deserve her.