An answer to the "tort reform" question

[rogerashton]

Well, it isn't really black and white, is it? There are too many lawsuits, of course, but most of them are not "frivolous." They are debateable, and the people who file them have a reasonable expectation of having their cases heard. But there has to be a reasonable middle ground on this. So-called 'tort reform" that simply takes away a person's right to sue isn't an answer -- it's an extremist political sound-bite. There are too many lawsuits, frankly, because legislatures haven't done their job. When the legislatures don't do their job, you rely on the courts, and in this case that isn't satisfactory.

We need to sit down with people from both sides, with doctors and patients and insurance people and experts and work out some guidelines for when malpractice relief may be sought, resolving those debateable cases in advance, rather than leaving them to the courts. That's hard to do when one party takes an extremist black-and-white point of view for political gains, and refuses to consider the facts or to consider compromise. But that's what we have to do, and when I become president, I'll do my best to make it happen. And if we have a Democratic congress, I'm confident it will happen.