Chait on Gerson's EC

Good stuff.   Chait busts up two vacuum-chamber rattles about Health Care Reform.

First, that Obama and the left hid the cost of HCR in the "doc fix"

This isn't part of the "overall cost of the entitlement." It's part of the cost of running Medicare. The cost exists irrespective of the Affordable Care Act. The paper savings from lower physician reimbursements were not used to cover insurance subsidies in the bill. If health care reform had died, Congress would still be passing a doc fix. Gerson's charge is utterly, unambiguously false.

Then that HCR is an entitlement for the un-needy

Focus on Gerson's claim that the Affordable Care Act benefits citizens who are not "vulnerable." By what possible standard is this true? The primary beneficiaries are people who can't afford to buy health insurance! They're vulnerable to getting sick and suffering terrible pain, bankruptcy, or even death either because they or a family member has a preexisting condition, or because their employer doesn't offer health insurance and they're priced out of the dysfunctional individual market. That's not "vulnerable"?

Those Condescending Elitists

Not that this should come as any surprise, but the Right has already begun their whine-fest from the Health Care Summit.  Apparently because that elitist a-hole Obama comes across so damned smarmy.   I love the give and take between Chait and Poheritz.   Pretty much epitomizes the two sides of this debate:

Earlier I noted of the health care summit that the Republicans in attendance seem to be divided between those who have no data at their disposal and those who have incorrect data. It is therefore difficult for President Obama, who obviously has a deep command of the issue, to engage with those Republicans without somewhat projecting condescension.

John Podhoretz shoots back:

Here’s how. By not being condescending. That’s how.

Never mind facts vs fiction; It's all in the delivery.  I wonder if the right will ever realize how this tactic looks from the outside.  It's plain to see that they're essentially cheerleading ignorance and opposing intelligent thought.