Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Home Truth

Walter Russell Mead on the matter of truth-telling in re Obamacare:
Anyone who’s been involved in drafting or debating this legislation has known for a long time this was coming. Jay Carney put it this way: “What the president said and what everybody said all along is that there is going to be changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act to create minimum standards of coverage, minimum services every insurance provider has to provide.”

The only ones who have been caught off guard by this “revelation” are media outlets and supporters of the law that haven’t been paying close attention. Obama’s “if you like your plan, you can keep it” has always been something “between an oversimplification and a falsehood” (and, really, we can do away with the left-hand portion of that range of possibilities). The general public is at long last realizing that fact.

But does this debate matter? Why is it important what Obama knew and when? It matters, first, because it points to a deep disconnect between the technocratic governing class and the American people. Reassuring the public with something “between an oversimplification and a falsehood” while designing a system that would have such widespread and disruptive effects is typical behavior for those in the grips of the technocratic mindset. We need to recognize and remember this behavior in the future.
Yep. As always, more at the link.

1 comment:

Gino said...

what did he know and when? the question is: did he even give a shit or offer much thought about it?

what we are talking about here is a total rank amateur when it comes to any policy of any kind.
this guy is a bag of wet mice, intellectually, who has only learned how to talk and speak well, but never learned to actually do anything beyond that.
(i bet he couldnt change the oil in his own car.)

what the president did: he wanted a groundbreaking legistlation to match his hype, and didnt care how it was done, took zero part in its specifics, and handed the whole job off to a bunch of kooks who cant see beyond their idealogical dream list.