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Fear Strikes Out, By PAUL KRUGMAN

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jefferson_dem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-22-10 07:51 AM
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Fear Strikes Out, By PAUL KRUGMAN
Fear Strikes Out
By PAUL KRUGMAN

The day before Sunday’s health care vote, President Obama gave an unscripted talk to House Democrats. Near the end, he spoke about why his party should pass reform: “Every once in a while a moment comes where you have a chance to vindicate all those best hopes that you had about yourself, about this country, where you have a chance to make good on those promises that you made ... And this is the time to make true on that promise. We are not bound to win, but we are bound to be true. We are not bound to succeed, but we are bound to let whatever light we have shine.”

And on the other side, here’s what Newt Gingrich, the Republican former speaker of the House — a man celebrated by many in his party as an intellectual leader — had to say: If Democrats pass health reform, “They will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years” by passing civil rights legislation.

I’d argue that Mr. Gingrich is wrong about that: proposals to guarantee health insurance are often controversial before they go into effect — Ronald Reagan famously argued that Medicare would mean the end of American freedom — but always popular once enacted.

But that’s not the point I want to make today. Instead, I want you to consider the contrast: on one side, the closing argument was an appeal to our better angels, urging politicians to do what is right, even if it hurts their careers; on the other side, callous cynicism. Think about what it means to condemn health reform by comparing it to the Civil Rights Act. Who in modern America would say that L.B.J. did the wrong thing by pushing for racial equality? (Actually, we know who: the people at the Tea Party protest who hurled racial epithets at Democratic members of Congress on the eve of the vote.)

And that cynicism has been the hallmark of the whole campaign against reform.

Yes, a few conservative policy intellectuals, after making a show of thinking hard about the issues, claimed to be disturbed by reform’s fiscal implications (but were strangely unmoved by the clean bill of fiscal health from the Congressional Budget Office) or to want stronger action on costs (even though this reform does more to tackle health care costs than any previous legislation). For the most part, however, opponents of reform didn’t even pretend to engage with the reality either of the existing health care system or of the moderate, centrist plan — very close in outline to the reform Mitt Romney introduced in Massachusetts — that Democrats were proposing.

Instead, the emotional core of opposition to reform was blatant fear-mongering, unconstrained either by the facts or by any sense of decency.

<SNIP>

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/opinion/22krugman.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print
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tigereye Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-22-10 07:54 AM
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1. nicely said. My 82 year old dad said it would pass after he saw the CBO report
and he was right!


:toast:
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fugop Donating Member (901 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-22-10 07:55 AM
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2. What? Unscripted, you say?
But ... but ... but ... TELEPROMPTER! They must have surgically implanted the teleprompter, because we all know he can't speak without one, right?

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NJmaverick Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-22-10 07:55 AM
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Well said Paul!
:toast:
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boobooday Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-22-10 07:55 AM
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3. The Gingrich quote takes my breath away
Confirming that the right-wing hysteria has very little to nothing to do with health care, except to the extent that they think they might have to share their doctor's waiting room with someone who doesn't look like him.

It's really coming out now. I was reading some of the Freeper comments, and they were calling Geraldo Rivera a "spic" because he wasn't singing their tune.

I'd love to see these racist homophobes at the end of the line for health care. Mean? Yeah. It's how I feel right now.
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Jennicut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-22-10 08:52 AM
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6. Newtie's argument: Civil Rights should never have been attempted
because it cost the Dems politically. Like who cares?
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Spazito Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-22-10 08:09 AM
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4. Well said, Mr. Krugman...
"This is, of course, a political victory for President Obama, and a triumph for Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker. But it is also a victory for America’s soul. In the end, a vicious, unprincipled fear offensive failed to block reform. This time, fear struck out."

Well said.

Recommended.

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pampango Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-22-10 08:50 AM
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5. Fear and teabaggers (which may be another term for the same thing) strike out! n/t
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