Into the Mire

By DAVID BROOKS
NYT

Barack Obama came to Washington with the nation’s hope for change riding on his shoulders. He promised to reform the health care system. He hired many of the country’s top experts who had written brilliantly about how to do reform.

He immediately moved away from some of their ideas. This was understandable. America isn’t Plato’s Republic. It’s not a nation governed by experts. It’s a democracy. To get things passed, you’ve got to allow for political reality.

So President Obama promised to keep health insurance the same for most Americans. This meant it was going to be harder to bring down costs. This meant it wouldn’t be possible to replace the fraying employer-based insurance system. But these compromises could be justified.

Then the Congress began its deal-making. There were special favors put in for certain senators. There were special arrangements made for big Democratic donors, like the trial lawyers. These were compromises, too. They were ugly, and they soiled everybody involved. But, again, they could be justified for reasons of political expediency. The bill that emerged from the Senate was not to everybody’s liking. It wouldn’t reduce the nation’s overall health care spending.

(More here.)