James Carville on Government Reform

Government's "heavy hand" does a lot of good

In my hometown, the federal government also cared for a group of people no one else was willing to care for--folks from all over the country who came down with Hansen's disease, a condition more commonly known as leprosy. Carville was world famous as the home to the Gillis W. Long Hansen's Disease Center, where doctors developed the multidrug treatment that now allows people with Hansen's to lead a near-normal life. Only the federal government had the resources and inclination to do that.