Since it’s Friday, I don’t feel compelled to be too substantive, which is why I’m going to have some fun, and needle Another Black Conservative for Another Tremendously Misguided Blog Post:
Chris Chillizza at the Washington Post picks the Winners and Losers of the Health Care Summit (a.k.a Obama’s Dog and Pony Show on health care). I have a slightly different take. Here is what I saw.
Winners:
Obama: If you are a person who does not follow politics closely and you tuned in to the summit today, you would have found Obama acting like a referee trying to bring the two ideologically opposed parties together. He came off as fair and above the fray (most of the time, John McCain would disagree). You could almost forget that it is HIS nasty bill that was actually the starting point for today’s event.
Ah, yes. President Obama’s “nasty bill.” The bill that was mostly hashed out by a small group of moderate Democrats and Republicans last fall, and the bill that — despite its modesty — provides coverage for 30 million Americans, reduces the cost of insurance for millions more Americans, slows the growth in health spending, and cuts the deficit by a hundred billion dollars, give or take. Yes, President Obama’s terrible, no good, horrible bill.
I actually don’t mind if ABC doesn’t believe that the federal government ought to ensure universal coverage, or if he doesn’t believe that the federal government ought to pursue ambitious legislation. That’s a fair difference of opinion. But let’s not pretend like this bill is going destroy America. By most accounts, it will do a lot of good. And while you might disagree with its aims and underlying ideas, it’s still possible to acknowledge that this is a good faith effort to help a lot of people.
Photo credit: Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
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