Stop Me Before I Vote Again

The bag of rotten organ meats called Baucus-care is often sold to us by large-souled but deeply insightful humanitards like Nobelista Paul Krugman, he of Times Square and Nassau Hall by way of Nassau County, as in this toss-off back in late fall '07.

"From the beginning, advocates of universal health care were troubled by the incompleteness of Barack Obama’s plan, which unlike those of his Democratic rivals wouldn’t cover everyone. But they were willing to cut Mr. Obama slack on the issue, assuming that in the end he would do the right thing.

Now, however, Mr. Obama is claiming that his plan’s weakness is actually a strength... The central question is whether there should be a health insurance “mandate” — a requirement that everyone sign up for health insurance, even if they don’t think they need it. The Edwards and Clinton plans have mandates; the Obama plan has one for children, but not for adults."

As seen in our dear PK 's Xmastide sum-up of the Baucus Concoctus,

"This plan combines three main elements: community rating, so that premiums can’t be based on medical history...

subsidies, to help lower-income families afford the premiums...

[AND]

... an individual mandate, so that healthy people are in the pool, keeping premiums down..."

Why?

Well according to our other loving meritoids, a mandate will forever bar... (a still largely undemonstrated)... "adverse selection process", which can only emerge in the single person policy market anyway. Seems even the faint possibility of some insignifigant body of antisocial shoeless souls "gaming the system" sends our great philanthropists like Lord Paul into fits of anxiety.

Whereas...

When it comes to the recent White House push on hi-fi reform -- the saddling of mustangs on Wall Street -- where the system itself is by sacred mission always about, and only about, gaming the system -- behold, there's no such fear.

The bastards expect us to buy their never-again bullshit without putting any teeth in it -- without hacking a few of these giant redwoods into mulch.

Nope, all the federals gotta do, according to Team Barry is, well, freeze things just as they are.

Surprised? Or like that pretentious hillbilly, Father Smiff, are you slapping your knee and imagining the mythic kulak morons out there keyed in on their commute radio:

"Listen up, fellow critters: never fear, the DC rangers are on the case. The gold-collar crime-bustin' team, gentle Ben and twitchy Tim the Wall Street Romulan, got a bead drawn on this beast. So stop this silly thinking man's hysterics here -- why, that's just sissy bullshit. Uncle's got this all well in hand. Just go back to yer den chair, maybe turn on the super bowl prelims and pass around the Old Milwaukee. We'll... freeze things in place."

I see Pa turning to Ma -- "why shucks, honey bun... that sounds like a pretty damn small-fry-friendly default position to me."

Here's convincingly indignant self-appointed people's watchdog Simon Johnson:

"To freeze the banks at or close to their current size, this makes no sense at all. Why would anyone regard twenty years of reckless expansion, a massive global crisis, and the most generous bailout in recorded history as the recipe for creating “right” sized banks?"