Healthcare

President Obama and the Centrists

On Morning Joe, they were just referencing David Brooks' latest column in which he discusses how President Obama needs to reconnect with "the center" on things like healthcare.

"The center" on healthcare according to very serious guys like Brooks means no public insurance option, of course. This means a more expensive bill (the public option is a cost control measure). And mandates without a public option will force everyone to buy private insurance, amounting to an unprecedented compulsory handout to corporate criminals. This is "the center" Brooks and Scarborough appear to be ballyhooing. The center means more spending and more corporate giveaways. This is what Brooks and Scarborough want.

Yet a considerable portion of Brooks' column calls for fiscal restraint. The public option is fiscal restraint.

President Obama's position on healthcare reform hasn't changed since the campaign. Public option, cost controls, insurance reform, revenue neutral, etc. The "centrists" who supported the president were well aware of what the president had in mind for healthcare. So the current policy shouldn't be a surprise.

It's just a surprise to Brooks for some reason who misinterprets crazy wingnut influence for some sort of shift to the left in the president's healthcare policy. The reality is that the president hasn't changed, but some of these so-called centrists changed when they were confronted by the crazy lies of the wingnut right. That, and Brooks is buying into the wingnut meme that President Obama is a closeted socialist/communist/far-left moonbat.

Brooks also talks about a reconciliation vote on healthcare alienating "the center." Believe me, no one other than junkies and wonks will care about reconciliation. In fact, I would wager that most Obama voters in "the center" don't even really know what reconciliation is. And if they're told, my hunch is their reaction will be, "A simple majority? What's wrong with that?"

So the upshot: Scarborough and Brooks are full of crapola like always.