Another Bush bait and switch, in the "tort reform" area.

[Inland]

The president shows up in Madison County, Illinois, to discuss medical malpractice awards and limits on plaintiff's recovery. Madison County is bruited as a litigation hellhole. So there must be a huge amount of medical malpractice cases in Madison County, right?

Wrong. It is a bait and switch. Madison County is rightly famous for consumer class action suits, and not for malpractice. For example, the tobacco companies got hit with a huge award in a jury trial there.

Interesting, isn't it? The president's words are how the medical industry is in peril. His acts are how the tobacco industry is in peril. Since limits on recovery on malpractice is the most sympathetic of all, the tobacco companies, dangerous drug makers, defective product makers will all find a way to piggy back in a "tort reform". The cry will be, if limits are good enough for doctors, why not us? So you can expect to find that if your tires blow and you are horrifically injured, you wont' be compensated: but if you run over a tire industry exec, you will pay full frieght, because he counts and you don't.