"I admit that all the recent Obamacare troubles are … well, let’s face it,
they’re huge fun."
It’s true, I supported Obamacare–I favor universal health care, and still think it’s a good idea to try to inject competition through the “three legged” mechanism** of the exchanges before resigning ourselves to some kind of Medicare-for-all scheme.
On the other hand, it’s hard not to witness the current Obamacalypse without getting more than a little spark of serotonin. Here’s the self-righteous, cocooning, progressive “coalition of the ascendant,” disdainful of triangulation, dismissive of all the 90s-era Charlie Peters neolibs with their worries about bureaucracies and perverse incentives and their focus on the mechanics of government, suddenly discovering that neglecting the mechanics of government can be a big, big mistake. The Education of Ezra Klein continues, at great expense to the nation. We might as well enjoy the spectacle.
(**–Obamacare’s three-legged stool: 1) guaranteed issue (despite preexisting conditions), 2) mandate to buy coverage, 3) subsidies to help people pay the now-increased premiums for the mandated coverage.)
31 comments:
Kaus is a favorite of mine. I recall a few years ago when Ezra's star was ascendant. What could have been more galling than a snot-nosed 23 year-old being hired at the magazine you were let go from (Slate)? In your fifties?
I can't get the Ezra Klein link to work. Of course, I'm not sure I want it to.
And Kaus, as a supporter of this law, shouldn't be so fucking happy that the implementation is a disaster. This shit is on him, too, and he should own it.
Obamacare's three-legged stool...
I don't know about the legs, but it certainly smells like stool.
"We might as well enjoy the spectacle"
Didn't Clayton Williams get in hot water for saying something along those lines?
Worse, voters are facing this three year gauntlet without much apparent confidence in the ability of the administration to make it better. After all, the people in Obama’s White House are, as Obama used to say about Bush, the ones who made the mess.
I don't think you excerpted the best parts of the column. Obamacare's in deep shit because it increases overall costs when it was sold on reducing them and it passes those costs to the non-wealthy who believed they would be largely uneffected.
Kaus' mistake though is claiming that it won't be fixed because those who made the mess are in control (presumably following the Dems shitty logic). People who make messes clean them up all the time. In fact Obamacare won't be fixed because those in control don't know there's a mess. Studies show roughly 0% of people unaware of a mess succeed in cleaning it.
Eric the Fruit Bat, one minute with the inspiration, the next with the well-concealed stiletto* between the ribs.
* The bladed weapon, not the shoe. Though it wouldn't surprise me if EtFB occasionally killed a man in Reno with a stiletto shoe, just to watch him die. Must remember to stay out of Reno....
"We might as well enjoy the spectacle"
Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Well, the music for afterwards is just so darned jaunty, so who can blame them?
You'll notice that competition or any other mechanism for producing quality or to control costs is absent from this three legged stool. It like what you get and it's cost is irrelevant. Those would be the two things we actually care about when we buy something.
I can't get the Ezra Klein link to work.
Fixed
All three legs are only concerned with a small portion of the public while the overall system itself affects the lives of everyone. Myopia.
While there is an inescapable schadenfreude aspect to the ObamaCare debacle, the real specter of people ... I don't know... dying prematurely? because their insurance get canceled is nothing to derive please from.
I'm just saying.
deborah said...
Kaus is a favorite of mine.
I also enjoy Kaus on occasion but he seems very lazy, possibly a trust fund child.
What is the worst thing that could happen to you if you have to pay double or triple for your insurance?
ObamaBots don't think its that bad.
Look at it the way Chief Roberts does.
It's a tax hike.
Nobody has ever died from a tax hike.
Thanks for the fix, Lem.
By now I imagine Klein is one of those Obama supporters that doesn't actually care about how good a job Obama does.
"the real specter of people ... I don't know... dying prematurely? because their insurance get canceled is nothing to derive please from."
While I am very sympathetic to anyone who did not vote for Obama or his minions who is damaged by this clusterfuck, I will be taking great pleasure in any misery, suffering, and death that comes as a result of this from the kool aid drinkers.
Screaming bloody murder about what was going to happen for the last 5 years and having it fall upon deaf ears (or be called a lying racist for it) gives me dispensation for enjoying the chickens coming home to roost. As a healthy young person who is opting out, I say let the whole fucking thing burn to the ground.
Elections have consequences.
Leftwingers always describe themselves as "moderate". What bull.
These people are leftwing and they have no clue how the world works other what they think they know inside their little leftwing back-slapping bubble. and as they watch it all fall apart- they whine like babies.
The leftwingers are blind to the FACT that we keep trying their old statist ideas over and over and those old statist ideas keep failing. They don't make the connection and they never will.
Here's the problem with this stool and yeah, it's a giant steaming stool. This stool collapses in on itself.
"1) guaranteed issue (despite preexisting conditions), 2) mandate to buy coverage, 3) subsidies to help people pay the now-increased premiums for the mandated coverage.)"
1) What is the point of guaranteed issue with pre-existing conditions if all you have to do is wait to get sick then get the insurance on the exchange?
2) how do you mandate to buy coverage if you can't buy the coverage and don't know what the costs will be? and what will you be mandated to buy and what will that coverage entail?
3) why did we go through all of this bullshit for the last 45 years if subsidies are going to be issued to cover the gap in premiums that no one will pay because of above 1 or 2?
It all hinges on forcing people to pay the premiums or paying the penalty. If that's the case, then the next step is single payer anyway and that's where all this is headed. Collapse.
ARM, I get what you mean about Kaus. A while back, maybe before he got on at the Washington Examiner, he did some fill-in work for some talk radio guy. Maybe on KFI(?) And he was okay. He could have maybe gotten a contract if he worked at it...But I think there is no way Kaus would piss away three hours of his day talking, if it bored him. I guess I'm saying, he'd rather make lesser money than do something he felt was too emotionally taxing. I don't think that's laziness, so much as valuing time, but I get where you are coming from, definitely.
He definitely didn't acquit himself well when running for senator. Didn't even get some sort of basic permit for...can't remember...but please. Oh, wait, it was for something like signing up for free mailings for his candidacy. Not serious.
And, I think a permit to run commercials? So he started his commercial late?
Let me clarify. For Kaus it would be taxing to be a talk show host. For others, it can be enjoyable.
It's a stool softener.
The King has spoken. the lies - not lies. Up, not up - down.
Now it's on to immigration reform boys and girls. What smart Republican wouldn't trust the Jug-eared Jesus to fully implement all aspects of border security within a comprehensive immigration bill?
Any future legislation advocated by the Liar-In-Chief is dead on arrival due to his complete lack of credibility. So some good might come from this catastrophe after all.
Third Coast, the problem is that the Republicans, including such TEA Party "stalwarts" as Marco Rubio, want to greatly increase immigration in order to crush wages across the board. The border enforcement measures were always just a sop to the base to pretend that they're looking out for them, and they never intended that to be enforced anyway.
Icepick, even Rubio realizes he might have f'ed up his future political ambitions by pushing reform, and that all occurred before The Liar in Chief's lies about lies debacle. Unless I'm completely missing the current mood of the people out here in flyover country, any Rino that goes along with amnesty in any form will get his ass torched.
I think Kaus is a dumb fuck.
Ignorance Is Bliss FTW.
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