THE CHRONICLE, mourning the possible demise of the public option [read government option] in Obamacare, does what the Chronicle does: It lashes out at evildoers.
A few days back, things weren't going well for Obamacare. The Chronicle's prescription: A heavy dose of President Obama, morning, noon, and night. Only he could calm the irrational fears of the American people.
Well, though it was probably not cause and effect, the president graciously delayed his decampment to Martha's Vineyard and spoke and spoke and spoke. Whereupon things began to go even worse for Obamacare.
By last weekend, it appeared the administration had thrown the public option [read government option] under the bus, along with Reverend Wright and Mr. Obama's grandmother.
Or had it?
"[The] answer seems clear as mud," the Chronicle admitted Wednesday.
So had the Great Community Organizer failed?
Not according to the Chronicle. What was last week blamed on inchoate fear by people who had not been jawboned enough by the president, was this week blamed on Americans who dare petition their government for redress of grievances.
Bloomberg News reports that an army of 3,300 registered lobbyists is working the halls of Congress, twisting arms on health care reform. . . . .
No surprise: The lobbying dollars are flowing, too. According to number reported by Bloomberg from the Center for Responsive Politics, $263.4 million was spent during the first half of 2009. About half of that was spend by drug makers. . . .
Where to begin?
Our federal government is flirting with plans to put private insurance companies out of business; to regulate the health-care industry into a subsidiary of HHS; to tax everything that moves; to borrow money until the next generations are ruined . . . and our local newspaper is surprised that industries, companies, voluntary groups, and individuals are showing up to say something about what's going on?
K Street exists because the federal government is (a) gargantuan and (b) still feeding. Ratchet back the ambitions of the state, and most lobbyists would have nothing to do.
As for the Chronicle's singling out the drug industry, what a hoot! Big Pharma is for Obamacare. Its ads say so.
A week ago the Chronicle prescribed the TelePrompTer cure for what ails Obamacare. This week it prescribes the shut-up cure for everyone else.
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For fun, some close reading:
But others say [the public option [read government option]] is politically unpalatable and that a co-op arrangement or something else that does not involve government is far more likely.
What "others" really say is that the government option is bad policy. And the notion that "a co-op arrangement" would not "involve government" is laughable. If a co-op arrangement does not "involve government," there will not be a co-op arrangment.
Whether the public option [read government option] stays or goes, the public interest must be well served by health care reform or it's all an empty exercise.
That sentence is as close to an empty generality as it is possible to write with a straight face. It is all but a tautology: If the public interest is not served, then the public interest will not be served.
On the other hand, this shines a proper light on a long-standing problem. It should be used as a cudgel to encourage our people's representatives to buck up and do the right thing rather than buckling as the lobbying pressures mount and the dollars for persuasion pour in.
Hello to our old friend, the "other hand." It is shining a light on a problem that has been standing a long time. Soon it will pick up a cudgel (a short, heavy club) to be used, not for its natural and intended purpose (beating people, a favorite liberal fantasy) but to "encourage" (that is, to threaten) lawmakers to do what the Chronicle believes they should do. The alternative: lawmakers' buckling under pressure, like Diet Coke cans in a kitchen compactor; dollars pouring in, like fake doctors at liberal congresspersons' town-hall meetings.
The horror! The horror!
(I'm talking about the writing.)
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