Yes, she does infuriate on the regular.
However, she also regularly drops a gem.
Robert Wright notes that “we already ration health care; we just let the market do the rationing.” This is a true point made by the proponents of health care reform. But I’m not sure why it’s supposed to be so interesting. You could make this statement about any good:
“We already ration food; we just let the market do the rationing.”
“We already ration gasoline; we just let the market do the rationing.”
“We already ration cigarettes; we just let the market do the rationing.”And indeed, this was an argument that was made in favor of socialism. (No, okay, I’m not calling you socialists!) And yet, most of us realize that there are huge differences between price rationing and government rationing, and that the latter is usually much worse for everyone. This is one of the things that most puzzles me about the health care debate: statements that would strike almost anyone as stupid in the context of any other good suddenly become dazzling insights when they’re applied to hip replacements and otitis media.
I’ve never understood how the left can make this argument with a straight face. Whenever I get confronted with it in person, I ask them how it is better if the government does the rationing.
If they don’t decide they can’t honestly answer the question and just tell you to fuck off and walk away, the answer always contains the buzzwords “corporate greed”, and “the common good”, as though not being able to afford a medication is equal to some bureaucrat deciding that their weekly/monthly/yearly budget limit for services is getting close to maxing out.
To my knowledge, I think don’t know anyone who’d rather put their budget for something as important as medical expenses in someone else’s control.