Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

đŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockin’ đŸŽ”

All hail the time of the bunny!

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

When we show up, we win.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Chat with Ezra Klein

Reader Interactions

16Comments

  3. 3.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    And he just put this up on the chat.

    Grand Junction, Colo.: Ezra – What’s a succint counter to people who continuously assert “the market will solve all” and the like, in reference to health care reform or any other ail of the day? It’s mind numbing and I want friends with this “view” to think about what they’re saying.

    Ezra Klein: Look around. The thing about the market is that it doesn’t solve problems. It works towards efficiencies. The market’s solution to the problem of “a lot of people can’t afford health-care coverage” is that “a lot of people can’t afford health-care coverage.” That’s what the market does: Given scarce resources, it apportions them according to the capacity to pay. A lot of people can’t afford a Lexus. Thus, a lot of people don’t have a Lexus. That’s not a market failure. It’s the market’s solution. The market isn’t failing to solve the problem here. It’s just that we don’t want the market’s solution. We want people to have health care. So we need to go beyond the market. It’s the same as fire departments or national defense or roads. There are things we want people to have even if they can’t pay for it.

    That, in a nutshell, is the argument FOR a public option.

  4. 4.

    R-Jud

    “The thing about the market is that it doesn’t solve problems. It works towards efficiencies.”

    I think I’m going to do a cross-stitch of that and hang it in the living room.

  5. 5.

    slippytoad

    @The Grand Panjandrum:

    More succinctly I think the way to put it is this:

    The free market is an excellent solution to the problem of how to make a lot of money. It is the worst solution possible for how to provide for society’s needs.

  6. 6.

    Sentient Puddle

    @The Grand Panjandrum: Feature, not a bug in the minds of libertarians. I bet you wouldn’t have to look too hard to find a libertarian arguing that the way to reform health care is to let these bastards die off, and cut costs by letting these bastards die off rather than throw money and try to save them.

  8. 8.

    b-psycho

    I wish they’d say ahead of time when the cutoff was for questions. I submitted mine & when the page reloaded it said the chat was over.

  9. 9.

    Jonny Scrum-half

    I thought that Klein’s explanation quoted by The Grand Panjandrum was really well-stated, especially the part about how the inability of some people to purchase health insurance isn’t a failure of the market, but rather it’s solution. Klein makes me think of things in a way that the typical BS talking-points don’t.

    Also, I like how Klein actually engaged the questioners, which from my observation is very different than when a “mainstream” journalist does the chat. Then, it often seems like they’re annoyed with having to defend/explain themselves.

    Sentient Puddle — I consider myself a libertarian. It must be real easy to form opinions when anyone who disagrees with you is evil.

  10. 10.

    Tax Analyst

    Paul L. said:
    “I have to give Ezra credit for this or an Andrew Sullivan Yglesias Award
    The left denounced Guilt by association for “wingnuts” linking Obama with Bill Ayers and Rev. Wright.
    Nice to see Ezra defend Megan McArdle from Guilt by association.”

    I hope you realize what a slight “endorsement” that is. All he is saying is “don’t blame McArdle for her parents follies and excesses.” Hell, that’s simple fairness.

    He still considers her “wrong” on almost everything.

  11. 11.

    Sentient Puddle

    Sentient Puddle—I consider myself a libertarian. It must be real easy to form opinions when anyone who disagrees with you is evil.

    And I consider myself a libertarian too! Only I didn’t like Bush wiretapping me without a warrant.

    We’re all smart enough to catch the context of how the word is being used. I’m not interested in playing incredibly pedantic semantics games in these instances. Yes, that does mean it comes across as a generalization, but when I’m calling out Randian economics, trying to draw a line separating it from everything else with pinpoint precision is just a waste of everyone’s time.

  12. 12.

    Jonny Scrum-half

    Sentient Puddle — I didn’t like Bush wiretapping without a warrant either, or a lot of other things that Bush did.

    To be honest, I’m not smart enough to understand the context of your statement. I just think that it’s ridiculous — and generally unhelpful — when people claim that supporters of various policy positions with which they disagree [choose one or more: want people to die; are racist; hate America; are Communist; love criminals; are fascist, etc.] How is your statement any different than the Republican argument that the public option will result in old people being forced into assisted suicide?

  15. 15.

    Warren Terra

    Ezra gives good chat. I never read any WaPo chats on their own pages, but I always read the full chat transcripts Ezra posts to his blog. In particular, the “free market” answer Pajandrum quoted was indeed great.

    And srv @ #14 has an excellent point.

  16. 16.

    pattonbt

    I just wish the R’s would say what they really mean. We (whomever we define as ‘we’ and not ‘the other’) want government funded healthcare but we dont want to have to pay for it. Its all about money.

    I have two kool-aid swilling R’s in my department and they, by strange coincidence (not), are also extreme christian fundamentalists. They hate the idea of publicly funded healthcare. Hate, hate, hate it. They claim all this Jesus love crap and then out the other side of their mouth whisper about having to pay for ‘them’ (or truthfully anyone else). Its the politics of selfishness. Thats fine with me, but at least honestly own it, dont try and wrap it up in stoopid.

    I have another friend in the company who just admits it. He’s high up, he loves his money and he doesnt want to part with any of it. I call him a callous douchebag he calls me a DFH and we can still be on OK terms because he is at least honest.

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