Finding the Center

Jesse Walker | December 21, 2009

Covering the health care debate from the left, Luke Mitchell of Harper's offers as good a definition you'll see of what "moderation" means in D.C.:

The polite word for regulatory capture in Washington is "moderation." Normally we understand moderation to be a process whereby we balance the conservative-right-red preference for "free markets" with the liberal-left-blue preference for "big government."...The contemporary form of moderation, however, simply assumes government growth (i.e., intervention), which occurs under both parties, and instead concerns itself with balancing the regulatory interests of various campaign contributors. The interests of the insurance companies are moderated by the interests of the drug manufacturers, which in turn are moderated by the interests of the trial lawyers and perhaps even by the interests of organized labor, and in this way the locus of competition is transported from the marketplace to the legislature. The result is that mediocre trusts secure the blessing of government sanction even as they avoid any obligation to serve the public good. Prices stay high, producers fail to innovate, and social inequities remain in place.

No one today is more moderate than the Democrats.

[Via James Ridgeway.]

Comments

Jeffersonian|12.21.09 @ 4:44PM|#

It's the Italian Corporate State all over again. We just need to get Barney, Harry, Nan and Barry some swell uniforms with eleventy-star general medals all over them.

|12.21.09 @ 5:50PM|#

Right on the money. The only thing we're missing are the uniforms and youth brigades. I expect those will arrive as soon as the tea party anger spreads to the liberals.

Jeffersonian|12.21.09 @ 6:42PM|#

The Obamajugend are legion, BB. Haven't you seen the videos?

BakedPenguin|12.21.09 @ 8:20PM|#

Youth brigades, you say?

|12.21.09 @ 5:10PM|#

Leaving aside the adoption of the standard "left-right" paradigm, a pretty good summary.

|12.21.09 @ 5:18PM|#

I wonder which of the Aryan support groups Luke Mitchell belongs to.

Inkblots|12.21.09 @ 5:39PM|#

Aryans Anonymous, of course.

Jeffersonian|12.21.09 @ 6:44PM|#

How about "Aryan Rainbow," "Hands Across the Stalag" or "Oprah Macht Frei"?

skr|12.21.09 @ 6:27PM|#

whenever i hear the word moderation, it is usually from my girlfriend informing me that I have just tossed back too many beers in too short a time.

Chad|12.21.09 @ 7:24PM|#

We have, by far, the most right-wing health care system among industrialized nations. After this bill passes, we will have, by far, the most right-wing system among industrialized nations.

Yet it isn't far enough to the right for the teabaggers, who are utterly divorced from the reality of how ineffective, expensive, and cruel our system is.

But hey, I got mine, right?

Inkblots|12.21.09 @ 7:39PM|#

"Right wing!"
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

oncogenesis|12.22.09 @ 3:58AM|#

I am eager to learn what makes a health care system "right wing". Doctors with monocles?

FrenchHash|12.22.09 @ 5:08AM|#

Jesus chad. If a market alternative is "ineffective, expensive, and cruel" then is your proposal "efficient, inexpensive, and ethical?" I call bullshit

TP|12.21.09 @ 7:42PM|#

Great article in Harper's. But it fails to mention that about 50% (53% in my state) of Americans are on a "government plan" (Medicare, Medicaid, VA), which is really where all the problems begin.

The Senate Bill accomplishes nothing, it just shifts money from one place to another within the already bloated health care industry.

The Libertarian Guy|12.21.09 @ 7:46PM|#

Best Mussolini rip-off:

http://www.filmedge.net/Stooges/YouNaztySpy.jpg

Curly had the uniform down, yo. Gotta have lotsa medals. Obama would look good in that costume...

Mystery Science Theater fan|12.21.09 @ 9:42PM|#

"the locus of competition" sounds like a Roger Corman flick from the early 60's... or it should be.