The Homa Files

Pelosi argued that once ObamaCare was passed, folks would see what was in it and rally to support it.

Seems that the opposite is occurring: as reality gets unveiled folks are jumping off the canoe …

The reasons: bad economics and aversion to so-called social democracy’.

* * * * *

Excerpted from RCP: Refusing the Entitlement Lollipop, May 28, 2010

After a brief bump, support for Democratic health reform has declined.

According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 63 percent of voters support repeal of the law, the highest level since passage.

On the theory that the distribution of lollipops usually doesn’t provoke riots of resentment, opposition to the health entitlement requires explanation.

First, the economic case for Democratic health reform has been weak, contrived, even deceptive.

Recent events in Congress make the point. Two months after passing a law that supporters claimed would reduce federal deficits, largely through Medicare cuts, the House is moving toward a temporary “doctor fix” that would add tens of billions in Medicare costs.

The economic arguments for reform — that it would reduce the deficit and health inflation — were questionable from the beginning. Now they have been revealed as absurd.

Second, Americans are troubled with health reform, not because they lack knowledge of its provisions, but because they are uncomfortable with social democracy.

• When entitlements began in America, they were mainly focused on the elderly (through Social Security and Medicare) and the poor and disabled (through Aid to Families with Dependent Children and Medicaid).
• Benefits for the middle class were largely given through tax deductions for mortgage interest and the purchase of health coverage by businesses.
• America eventually retreated from some entitlement commitments to the poor because they involved a moral hazard — discouraging work and responsibility.
• Entitlements for the elderly have remained a strong, national consensus.

The idea of a middle-class entitlement to health care, achieved through an individual mandate, subsidies and aggressive insurance regulation, seems to change the nature of American society.

Entitlements in the Obama era are no longer a decent provision for the vulnerable; they are intended for citizens at every stage of life.

Americans resist taking this lollipop precisely because America is not Europe

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/05/28/refusing_the_entitlement_lollipop_105762.html

This entry was posted on June 11, 2010 at 7:53 am and is filed under Health Care / Medical Insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.