Settling for the Possible
By Bronwyn's Harbor on February 22, 2010 at 6:13 PM in Current Affairs
Sigh. No matter how loudly the American people decry Obamacare, the White House and Democratic leadership keep digging that hole deeper and deeper. (See “White House: If GOP Filibusters, We’ll Pass Health Reform Via Reconciliation.”)
Bronwyn slaps her forehead. Have you ever seen a White House so stubborn and so out of touch with the people and their priorities? Last night on the John Batchelor radio show (podcasts), his political panel bemoaned the “cult of personality” that surrounds the president, especially his Chicago gang (Robert Gibbs, Valerie Jarrett, et al). Mr. Obama has no truthtellers near him. Mr. Obama has no one to tell him emphatically that Americans do not want this legislation, and instead want Washington to focus on healing the economy and growing jobs. Mr. Obama and his “cult” remain convinced that his personality alone will suffice to sell most anything to Americans.
Furthermore, have you ever seen a bill so poorly explained that its mere mention makes people cringe with fear, despite Obama’s 20-plus health care speeches? The vast majority of Americans still have no clear picture of what’s in the health bill except that it is a messy patchwork of regulations and “reforms” 2,700 pages long. All Americans have heard are pie-in-the-sky promises. For example, the claim that the bill will pay for itself made people guffaw and groan because we all know that NO legislation ever pays for itself.
In fact, Obama’s White House version of the bill is so vague — it lacks “sufficient detail” — that the Congressional Budget Office’s Doug Elmendorf issued a statement today that the CBO cannot yet prepare a “cost estimate.”
Perhaps the most demoralizing part of this is that the White House seems willing to accept any bill — any bill at all — so long as it is titled Health Care. There is seemingly little interest in actual benefits of the bill as well as those “sufficient details.”
It seems evident that the “cult of personality” and The One simply want to attach themselves to a historic piece of legislation.
I just read The New Yorker’s intimate portrait of economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and his wife Robin Wells. I used to be a fan of Krugman’s, particularly during the primaries when he consistently pointed out that Hillary Clinton’s health care plan was vastly superior to Barack Obama’s, and when he actually condemned Obama’s bill in no uncertain terms.
But now? I am astounded that Krugman has also become willing to settle for any bill:
On the rare occasion when [Paul Krugman and his wife Robin] disagree about something, she will be the one urging him to be more outraged or recalcitrant. She pushed him to denounce the filibuster. She wanted him to be more stubborn in holding out for the public option in the health-care bill. He spent a few sleepless nights wrestling with his conscience about that but ultimately decided that a flawed bill was so much better than no bill at all that he had to support it. “You can get beaten down,” he says. “When Robin and I started writing about health care, single payer was clearly the way to go. And then bit by bit you start saying, ‘O.K., you take what you can get.’ There’s a trap I’ve seen some people fall into—you let your vision of what should be get completely taken over by what appears possible right now—and that’s something I’m trying to avoid.”
So the Nobel laureate has abandoned his principled attacks on Obama’s health care plans during the primaries.
Here’s a sampling of Krugman from March 2008:
Why has Mr. Obama stumbled when it comes to economic issues? Well, on health care — which is closely tied to overall concerns about financial security — there is a clear, substantive difference between the candidates, with the Clinton plan being significantly stronger.
More broadly, I suspect that the Obama mystique — his carefully created image as a transformational, even transcendent figure — has created a backlash among those unconvinced that he’s interested in the nuts-and-bolts work of fixing things. Ohio voters were more likely to say that Mr. Obama inspires them — but more likely to say that Mrs. Clinton has a clear plan for the country’s problems.
And Mr. Obama’s attempt to win over workers by portraying himself as a fierce critic of Nafta looked, and was, deeply insincere — an appearance particularly costly for a candidate who tries to seem above politics as usual.
Thanks to Tuesday’s results, the nomination fight will go on to Pennsylvania in April, and probably beyond — and rightly so. It’s now clear that Mrs. Clinton, like Mr. Obama, has strong grass-roots support that cannot be simply brushed aside without alienating voters that the party will badly need in November. …
Deeply insincere. Yes. But that was then, eh, Paul?
Check out more of the formerly principled Krugman here.
Meanwhile, here we sit, unable to contact anyone in Washington, D.C. who is willing to listen to us. God knows that Americans have tried. They have written and called. They have gone to town hall meetings and given their legislators an earful. They have told pollsters that they do not want this health care bill at this time.
Mitch McConnell isn’t one of my favorite people, but he hit the nail on the head on Fox News today when he said, “The American people are quite angry to have this jammed down their throats.” Indeed we are. For whatever good our anger does us.
Questions for you:
Do you think that this health care plan will pass in some form?
Do you think the Democrats’ last-ditch effort to pass a bill via reconciliation will succeed?
ls the “cult of personality” in such a tight circle around Obama that none of them realizes that their stubborn pressure to pass health care is alienating more and more voters, who will punish Democrats in November?
Is the “cult” so vested in its quest to pass what it considers “historic” legislation that it is willing to endanger its majorities in the House and Senate?
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
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