Karl Rove « The Irate Nation

Health Care “Reform” and “Willful self-deception”

Robert Samuelson in The Washington Post (h/t Karl Rove) hits health care "reform" as advocated by the Democratic Party hard:

There is an air of absurdity to what is mistakenly called "health-care reform." Everyone knows that the United States faces massive governmental budget deficits as far as calculators can project, driven heavily by an aging population and uncontrolled health costs. As we recover slowly from a devastating recession, it's widely agreed that, though deficits should not be cut abruptly (lest the economy resume its slump), a prudent society would embark on long-term policies to control health costs, reduce government spending and curb massive future deficits. The administration estimates these at $9 trillion from 2010 to 2019. The president and all his top economic advisers proclaim the same cautionary message.

So what do they do? Just the opposite. Their far-reaching overhaul of the health-care system -- which Congress is halfway toward enacting -- would almost certainly make matters worse. It would create new, open-ended medical entitlements that threaten higher deficits and would do little to suppress surging health costs. The disconnect between what President Obama says and what he's doing is so glaring that most people could not abide it. The president, his advisers and allies have no trouble. But reconciling blatantly contradictory objectives requires them to engage in willful self-deception, public dishonesty, or both.

There's more at the link - it deserves to be read. It looks like many Democrats are actually believing the self-serving arguments they advance as the truth; it's not hard to see how this happens, it happens to all of us everyday in other ways. One starts by distorting one issue ever so slightly, making other distortions in other issues to compensate, and starts believing the whole system one has set up as exactly. After all, when one believes one is entirely just - shouldn't the richest country in the history of the world procure health care for as many as possible - mere mortal matters like budgets and numbers that add-up tend to be thought irrelevant.

Off-topic, from my blog: Thoughts on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

TIN Links, 10/31/09

Hey all, Ashok here - it's great to be able to blog at TIN again and help Nate out a bit. I don't want to make hypocritical requests - I don't know how much I'll be able to help out here, I'm thinking at least a link post a week - but I think if everyone chips in a post a week at least, this place could really take off. I'm posting a lot more at my own blog, and that makes all the difference in the world - you really do get more traffic for more posts, up to a point. And I have subscribed to TIN myself to boost that subscriber count, and I definitely hope that habit catches on with readers and authors here.

I used to comb conservative blogs when making these link posts, looking to shed light on little known bloggers. I doubt that's going to happen anymore: there's too much repetition in the conservative blogosphere, and readers of my blog know I have some pretty deep concerns about the atmosphere the Tea Parties and other pundits have generated.

Just a few links, probably things you've already seen. From my own blog:

Yet again - Under No Circumstances Should Jon Corzine Be Re-elected Governor of NJ - I think this is plenty self-explanatory.
A Sample of What American Political Life Needs Far More Of - Concerns the governor's race in VA.
Things Everyone Should Read - Richard Hofstadter, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" - I didn't write this to put anyone down, but if I told you that I didn't think right-wing extremism is a real problem, I'd be lying. I really thought we'd be better than "Obama = Hitler" signs and stocking up on ammo and gold coins because of things Glenn Beck says (and is never told he's wrong on. Shouldn't we all be in camps right now if his ranting had any relation to reality?). The problem many of you should immediately raise with me is whether I offer anything better. I don't know that I do politically, and I concede that point to a degree.

Other links you'll probably find useful:

Jay Cost, "The Problem with the Health Care Debate" - everyone should read Jay Cost: he's a political scientist who brings solid scholarship to bear on what's happening currently, and does it without getting complicated at all. In this post he discusses how much information we don't have about health care reform, and by implication demonstrates that sometimes it's better not to read too much news.
Karl Rove, "Obama Goes Wobbly on Afghanistan" - self-explanatory.
And one totally non-political link that you either like, or hate America for not liking: "Too young to remember Michael Jordan's prime? Not me"