Saturday, July 25, 2009

Roosting Chickens

Or roasting chickens, whatever. From Bill Moyers:
MARCIA ANGELL: And I would say, on the politics first, that it is something of a Waterloo. In the sense that if he doesn't get it right he's going to be President for three more years. And the chickens will come home to roost.

BILL MOYERS: How so?

MARCIA ANGELL: So-- well, it can-- the failure can show up before he's out the door. And then he's got a real problem. He was right in his press conference, when he talked about cost as the central issue. And he said, if we don't control cost, not only will the health system continue to disintegrate, but it'll drag the whole economy down with it.

What he has essentially advocated is throwing more money into the current system. He's treating the symptom and he's not treating the underlying cause of our problem. Our problem is that we spend two and a half times as much per person on health care as other advanced countries, the average of other advanced countries. And we don't get our money's worth. So, now he says, okay, this is a terribly inefficient, wasteful system. Let's throw some money into it.
But let's face facts here, with Obama, this is not a bug, it's a feature. The same 'solution' was applied to the financial crisis, which was mainly caused by the regulatory breakdown of the financial system. His solution was the same as in health care, throw more money into the current system. Ditto Afghanistan. There has been no rethinking of any of the sucking wounds that are draining the country. He is incapable of it.
(h/t corrente)

1 Comments:

Blogger Joe said...

"There has been no rethinking of any of the sucking wounds that are draining the country. He is incapable of it."

I'm not looking to start a political squabble here, but are you able to suggest anyone in congress who is rethinking any of the sucking wounds that are draining the country?

We go way overboard expecting the president to fix everything. Fact is, Congress has a job to do, and they haven't been doing it for a long time.

7/28/2009 1:37 PM  

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