Ezra Klein on Health Care Reform
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“A couple wags wondered how I could simultaneously say health-care reform is a big win for progressives while suggesting it's anything less than an unmitigated disaster for conservatives. It's because I don't think this is zero-sum -- at least philosophically.”
“There's no doubt that progressives have suffered some real losses in the legislative process. The public option, for one. But along the way, a lot of progressives have lost sight of the fact that the very existence of this legislative process is a huge progressive victory.”
“Imagine if Stupak attempted to expand his campaign to the coverage employed women receive. It would, after all, be the same principle: Federal policy should not subsidize insurance that offers abortion coverage. But it wouldn't have a chance.”
“Ryan makes some good points about the true cost of the bill and realities of the federal budget. But he purposefully omits any mention of the bill's expected savings, disingenuously attaches the price tag of a broken Republican policy onto the health-care reform bill, and selectively stops extrapolating trends when they don't fit his points. It's a presentation designed to make the bill look less fiscally responsible than it really is.”
“There's no Plan B at this point in the game, and most everyone knows it”
“George W. Bush was known for his tendency to think in terms of black and white, good and evil, us and them. This was in opposition, supposedly, to the nuance favored by Democrats. But Barack Obama has his absolutist side, too: Some arguments are right, and some are wrong. Some are legitimate, and some are not.”
“Health-care reform is unpopular. But if you actually tell people what's in the health-care reform bill, then it becomes quite popular.”
“The Senate bill actually includes most of the best ideas out there. That isn't to say it includes all of the most interesting conservative ideas out there. But the big conservative ideas -- think John McCain's proposal to end the employer-tax exclusion or Paul Ryan's effort to privatize Medicare -- are radical and could be unpopular”
“What you're seeing here are the weird politics of the public option at play. It's popular in the country. It's wildly popular among the base. It's the subject of obsessive interest in the media.”
“I think I've said quite enough on the question of whether health-care insurance reduces the risk of death.”
“One further comment on the skepticism that some have adopted on whether health insurance coverage saves lives: This is not a skepticism consistent with either their actions or their professed beliefs.”
“Legislation is written for lawyers, not for people. It's full of references to subparagraphs and explanations of what needs to be deleted in previous statutes ensure continuity between new laws and old laws.”
“Democrats seem terrified by the prospect of, as some Hill aides have said to me, "cutting another deal."”
“This sort of horse-trading might be common in Washington, and this deal might be both small in the scheme of the bill and decent policy on the merits, but it had come to define the legislation. And people hated it.”
“What Democrats are doing isn't just abandoning a particular policy issue. They're proving themselves unable to govern.”
