Paul Krugman under the bus in....5....4....3....

[impik]

"There’s enormous disappointment among progressives about the emerging health care bill — and rightly so. That said, even as it stands it would take a big step toward greater security for Americans and greater social justice; it would also save many lives over the decade ahead. That’s why progressive health policy wonks — the people who have campaigned for health reform for years — are almost all in favor of voting for the thing...

... I’d also point out that highly imperfect insurance reforms, like Social Security and Medicare in their initial incarnations, have gotten more comprehensive over time. This suggests that the priority is to get something passed...

...By all means denounce Obama for his failed bipartisan gestures. By all means criticize the administration. But don’t take it out on the tens of millions of Americans who will have health insurance if this bill passes, but will be out of luck — and, in some cases, dead — if it doesn’t.


http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/illusions-and-bitterness/

[Cant trust em]

1. Krugman is probably OK. He does give consent to criticize the administration.

He'll probably keep out from under the bus entirely. Maybe just his legs will get run over.

[tridim]

2. I never throw rational, thinking people under the bus.

Why do you assume we will be unhappy with what he said?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

3. You do not understand the bus concept

The bus is a power concept.

Obama can throw people under the bus. Kucinich cannot because he doesn't have a bus.

And progressives do not have a bus.

I understand the desire to appropriate metaphors used by the "other side" but it's a childish approach.

[BlueIdaho]

9. We progressives don't even know where the bus stop is...

That's how unimportant we are to the corporatist that run this country.

[phantom power]

4. SS and Medicare were govt programs from the ground up...

The current incarnation of HCR is fundamentally based on private insurance companies. Imagine if SS had been built on mandated individual participation in private investment firms.

[Armstead]

5. Sorry, not playing this

I disagree with Krugman on this. I respect his opionion and agree with him at other times.

Not throwing him "under the bus" but disagreeing with him.

Sorry to disappoint you.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

6. Dean and Krugman have been under the wheels of the either bus so many times, I think it hardly

matters anymore. I've seen Krugman hated by both sides and touted as a genius by both sides. I've seen Dean trashed as a party line man and hailed as a reform genius by the same side. I've seen the other side call him a genius and then say he was deviously plotting for 2012.

[VMI Dem]

7. Social Security and Medicare were pushed by Presidents whose testicles had descended.

[Vinnie From Indy]

8. He just down there changing the oil.

Krugs is brilliant, but wrong about this in my opinion. I think he is wrong because he bases his argument on the false assumption that the insurance companies will actually implement the "good" things in the bill in good faith. They have no intentions of honoring the good things in this bill and there is nothing in the bill to make them.

[Doctor_J]

10. Someone is going to pay billions more to Big Insurance. who?

If it's not the hyper-rich, then the millions of poor who don't die will be replaced by millions of working class who become poor.

[OHdem10]

11. It is beginning to look like Privatization of Healthcare

Mandating everyone to purchase Insurance.???

[eleny]

12. Social Security and Medicare didn't place more of a burden on people

Furthermore, what sort of tweaks will the Democrats be able to pass when they lose seats in the Senate? How long will people have to suffer with escalating premiums before relief will be enacted?

On this issue, I obviously disagree with Krugman.

[MercutioATC]

13. Krugman's expressing disapproval and making a judgment call.

His call differs from mine, but our sentiments on the bill are similar.

I have no problem with that.

[Renew Deal]

15. Yes, he prefers less dead Americans.

[MercutioATC]

16. He prefers harming 300M Americans for the temporary slight benefit of 30M.

I disagree.

However, neither of us are cheerleading this bill as some here are.

[Renew Deal]

17. Those aren't the choices

It's not universal care vs. the current bill. It's the current bill vs. nothing.

[MercutioATC]

18. It's the current bill vs. either reconcilation or starting over.

This one bill isn't the only chance we have to create a good program.

The choice shouldn't be whether to accept or reject it, it should be whether to reform it in reconciliation or just start over.


...and neither of those choices result in "nothing".

[Renew Deal]

19. I think people are missing a lot in this "debate."

The bill will change in conference, and some of the "public option" provisions are in the House bill. Also, there's not much that can be done with regulations of the health care industry in reconciliation. That needs to be done now. Starting over is just not an option. Remember how long it took to "start over" since Clinton tried health care? We can't afford to wait.

And the "kill the bill" people are all about doing nothing. Some want that because they want nothing, and some are children that want to take their ball and go home.

[MercutioATC]

20. I haven't seen any "kill the bill" people here who advocate doing nothing.

I have seen people here who opine that the current bill is irreparably flawed and that it would be easier to simply start with a clean slate than try to untangle and fix it.

[applegrove]

23. Yup.

[tomm2thumbs]

14. I don't know why they simply didn't say we'll take this out if we can put this other item in

What is with this 'pull every organ out' and then not putting any transplants back in to replace them. Gutting does not make for good doctoring

[chill_wind]

21. Maybe I'm wrong, but

seems some of the people curiously trawling for a reaction to this one today are people who have never held his opinion in all that high regard. They will quickly be back to bashing him tomorrow for anything critical of the admin he might again say, which he surely will.

In a progressive community, we're allowed to disagree on Krugman on the issues without proclaiming "he is dead to me on all else he says now, for all eternity."

[Sultana]

22. The dude has been under a bus for some time now...