Ezra: Would public insurance be better? It would. I’d be happier arguing for it right now. But that’s not the choice before us. The people this bill will affect aren’t facing divergent futures with public and private insurance. They’re facing divergent futures with private insurance or no insurance. Regulated insurance or unregulated insurance. Exchanges that …
Petty Lane
One more thing about Klein v. Lane. Lane writes: I objected to Klein’s piece about Lieberman for the same reason I objected to the right’s scare talk about socialism and ‘death panels’…. Lane’s primary piece dealing with “death panels” was titled “Undue Influence: The House Bill Skews End-of-Life Counsel.” It contains two lines objecting to …
Klein v. Lane, Round 3
Ezra just demolishes Lane today: It seems, at this point, that our dispute comes down to tone. Lane wonders whether “it will be easier to achieve reform in an atmosphere where accusations of mass murder whizz about freely.” I wonder whether reform is even possible to achieve in an atmosphere where statements about consequences are …
Deep Thought
Ezra Klein points out that reconciliation will only allow the Senate to pass all the things that Lieberman hates, like the Public Option, but we cannot use it to pass insurance and other regulatory reforms that are still in the bill. I say pass the Liebermanized bill and let the President sign it. Then use …
Marty’s minions
The New Republic — especially Jon Cohn and Jon Chait — has actually done a very good job of covering the health care debate. Chait has an interesting take on Joe Lieberman that might be pretty explanatory (his earlier post on Lieberman was quite prescient): I think one answer here is that Lieberman isn’t actually …
…And out come the wolves
Maybe John is wrong and we shouldn’t defend Ezra Klein. Even a former editor of the liberal New Republic thinks Ezra is being too partisan (no link for Lane): My colleague Chuck Lane accuses me of a “venomous smear” against Joe Lieberman today, which is fair enough. He’s hardly the first to see it that …
Right on Schedule
Me, yesterday: And if you ditch the compromise and the public option, they will find something else to grandstand about. For Nelson, he’ll be back to abortion. Who knows what Lieberman will start whining about, but I am sure Marshall Wittman is, as we speak, cooking up some fatuous bullshit. CNN, today: Wittmann acknowledged Monday …