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Jewish World Review
Jan. 28, 2014
/ 27 Shevat, 5774
Obama breeding distrust of liberalism
By
Michael Gerson
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
For President Obama, the state of the political union . . . could be better.
It is not only that the president’s political support is diminished; it is diminished, in large part, because of his main political achievement, the Affordable Care Act. Because of the way the law was sold — “you can keep your plan” — Americans have questions about Obama’s credibility. Because of the way it has been implemented — “the system is down at the moment” — they have questions about his competence. In a recent Quinnipiac University poll, a plurality of American voters doubts that Obama is “honest and trustworthy,” and a majority believes the Obama administration is not competent at running the government. Add to this an economy recovering so weakly and inequitably that 77 percent of voters call it “not so good” or “poor,” and you have a serious possibility that the president’s party will lose control of the Senate in November — leaving Obama isolated and legislatively irrelevant. The great rhetorical problem for Obama is that these are not primarily rhetorical problems. It is neither fair nor realistic to ask speechwriters to succeed where legislators, bureaucrats and health economists have made a botch of it. This political situation would be interesting if it were not so boring. A second-term president faces declining public standing and a tough midterm election. Not much news there. It is the ideological state of the union that is less typical and more alarming. The unraveling of Obamacare is also an unfolding crisis for liberalism. It was the universal liberal assumption that offering fairly generous health benefits to the uninsured — funded in a transfer program — would result in many more of them actually becoming insured, thus creating a social expectation that Republicans could never repeal. (This was also the expectation and fear of tea party conservatives, who described such benefits as crack-like in their addictive power.) But the early returns are in. A large majority of the 2.2 million people who had purchased insurance on the exchanges by year-end — 65 percent to 90 percent, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal — already had insurance. Economic writer Megan McArdle did the math, estimating that just 15 percent (750,000) of the 5 million uninsured that the Congressional Budget Office expected to sign up in the first year have actually done so. Meanwhile, administration claims about increases in coverage for the uninsured under Medicaid are badly, even deceptively, inflated, as Sean Trende has documented.
Economists debate the reasons for this failure of uptake. But, as it stands, Obamacare is largely a health insurance replacement system rather than an expansion. And the replacement is often less generous, more expensive and more restricted in options than promised. Yet, as McArdle pointed out, “the worst is yet to come”: small-business policy cancellations, expensive government subsidies to insurance companies for excess losses, higher premiums in the exchanges, the IRS collection of individual mandate penalties, cuts in Medicare Advantage, the “Cadillac tax” on expensive policies, the possibility that some insurers will exit the public market entirely. As the defining legislative promise of modern liberalism is implemented, trust in government is near record lows — a correlation that is not purely a coincidence. And this complicates every other element of the progressive agenda. Meanwhile, Republicans argue among themselves — not only about what policy alternatives they might offer but about whether federal policy on most issues is legitimate. And the ideological position generally taken to be more authentically conservative is also unresponsive to public needs and alienating to public opinion. The tea party argument in favor of narrowly interpreted, specifically enumerated constitutional powers is not only a criticism of Obamacare but calls into question the legitimacy of the Great Society and New Deal as well. (It is also a criticism of anyone, including Republicans, who offers an alternative to Obamacare.) This is not, in fact, the more “authentic” conservative tradition, which has stronger ties to the Federalists and Lincoln than to the anti-Federalists. But this view has come to characterize a significant portion of conservative activists. And given the choice between incompetent liberalism and tea party populism, Americans are, well, in deep trouble. The alternative is a reform-oriented conservatism that makes peace with the safety net while empowering individuals and rejecting bureaucratic centralization — the spirit, for example, of the Patient CARE Act, an alternative to Obamacare recently introduced by Republican Sens. Tom Coburn, Richard Burr and Orrin Hatch. It represents what the union needs most right now: another ideological option.
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Comment on Michael Gerson's column by clicking here.
Previously:
01/24/14 Our complex president: Is his intellectual style actually good leadership?
01/21/14 The power to intimidate . . . on the Left
01/17/14 Gates hits his target
12/31/13 A dismal year in politics, for Republicans and Democrats alike
12/24/13 The war on Christians
12/17/13 The exhausted parties: What have politicians accomplished?
12/06/13 My numbered days: My cancer diagnosis gave me the clarity of mortality
11/22/13 C.S. Lewis: Rescuing desire
11/19/13 Former bridge burner starting to build them to save GOP
11/15/13 Entrepreneurs of outrage: Fear and anger sweep up policy issues
11/01/13 What Obamacare has cost Dems
10/29/13 In 6 months will this column prove prophetic?
10/22/13 Obamacare repair: It could become a crisis for modern liberalism
10/04/13 The GOP should speed Obamacare's demise. Right now, it's not
10/03/13 The tea party's revolt
09/30/13 The end of compromise?
09/17/13 A state of paralysis: Congress, Obama need to act
09/12/13 In full retreat on Syria
09/10/13 Obama misunderstands wartime leadership
09/09/13 Rallying around a gesture
08/30/13 The preacher and the politician
08/27/13 Is Obama's oft-cited best-case scenario in Syria still even possible?
08/23/13 Jordan's wary welcome
08/20/13 The hardest goodbye: A parent letting go
08/16/13 For GOP, opposition shouldn't only mean obstruction
08/13/13 Crazy, humane determination creates breakthrough for millions
08/09/13 America's bubble of complacency
07/01/11 The GOP's ideal America
03/04/11 The last doughboy and the emergence of a great nation
03/01/11 Conservatives shouldn't be so surprised by freedom
02/22/11 The progression of pain
02/18/11 The seriousness primary
02/11/11 Do Egypt's protests mean American decline?
01/27/11 No-bend Obama
01/21/11 Two good arguments for civility -- and passion -- in politics
01/11/11 Obama's staff changes give him a second chance
01/11/11 Is Arizona shooting an empty search for meaning?
01/07/11 WikiLeaks gives dangerous ammunition to a tyrant
01/04/11 Michael Vick: Symbol of the second chance
12/28/10 Social Security reform is the answer to Obama's problems --- and the nation's
12/21/10 When foreign policy realism isn't realistic
12/17/10 When it comes to politics, Obama's ego keeps getting in the way
11/26/10 Libs resort to conspiracy theories to explain Obama's problems
11/19/10 With Holder at the helm, detainee policy is a disaster
11/12/10 Blue-state budget crises spell even more trouble for Dems
10/19/10 Obama the snob
10/12/10 Seeds of victory in Afghanistan
10/05/10 Believers' remorse
10/04/10 Pound-foolish on national security
09/28/10 Babylon on the Potomac
09/27/10 Our reluctant commander in chief
09/21/10 Blue strongholds are becoming Democratic graveyards
09/17/10 For the GOP, a bittersweet brew from the Tea Party
09/15/10: Insanity's great enablers
09/13/10: The lost communicator
09/08/10: Will 2010 midterms be 1994 all over again?
09/01/10: Obama's economic wandering
08/27/10: Miracles from abroad
08/25/10: Address these issues in order to strengthen the Tea Party
08/20/10: The lost promise of Barack Obama
07/23/10: Obama's greatest nightmare
02/04/09: The Reality of Innocence
01/07/09: The Risks in Obama's Ambitions
12/31/08: Support Obama Will Need
06/13/08: Prince Charles, Organic Conservatism Icon
06/11/08: No longer a bankrupt political joke but still overshadowed
04/23/08: McCain's anger management
04/10/08: A Country for Old Men
03/06/08: Does the America Need a Hug?
03/06/08: Obama's First 100 Days
02/29/08: Words Aren't Cheap
02/22/08: He Said, They Said
02/20/08: Dying silently in Zimbabwe
02/15/08: Hillary's Unappealing Path
02/13/08: NATO's Afghan Stumbles
02/08/08: Why McCain Endures
02/06/08: One surge that led to another
02/01/08: In North Korea, Process Over Progress
01/30/08: Compassionate to the end
© 2008, WPWG
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