Mark Thoma on the Health Care Debacle

Mark Thoma's post on his Economist's View blog is honest enough to say that the US health care "debate" is a disaster:

The liars are winning:

...Majorities in the poll believe the plans would give health insurance coverage to illegal immigrants; would lead to a government takeover of the health system; and would use taxpayer dollars to pay for women to have abortions — all claims that nonpartisan fact-checkers say are untrue about the legislation that has emerged so far from Congress.

Forty-five percent think the reform proposals would allow the government to make decisions about when to stop providing medical care for the elderly. That also is untrue...

Do we blame ineffective messaging, effective liars, or an ineffective and complicit press? All bear responsibility, but it's not clear that even the best messaging effort can penetrate the cloud of disinformation and untruths that is allowed to persist so long as it is good for ratings. Tell lies to scare people, then when the other side howls, count on the press turning it into a circus that is more of a series of gotchas than anything resembling a debate or a search for the truth. The press needs to take a long, hard look at it's role in destroying public debate. But it won't.

He vaguely names "ineffective messaging". To be more clear: Obama is too caught up in "consensus" politics and has let himself be gutted by the big lie machine, the Republican Party. They aren't interested in compromise or even in crafting a bill. They are after blood. They have turned their hyenas loose and the complicit media has turned a serious political debate into an utter disaster. So much for democracy.

When you have an opponent like the Republican Party, it makes no sense to "make nice". You have to play hardball and mobilize your base to drown out their base. Obama campaigned on "change you can believe in" but there's nothing here to believe in other than "same old, same old".