Krugman: Free to Die

[ProSense]

Free to Die

By PAUL KRUGMAN

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I’m referring, as you might guess, to what happened during Monday’s G.O.P. presidential debate. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Representative Ron Paul what we should do if a 30-year-old man who chose not to purchase health insurance suddenly found himself in need of six months of intensive care. Mr. Paul replied, “That’s what freedom is all about — taking your own risks.” Mr. Blitzer pressed him again, asking whether “society should just let him die.”

And the crowd erupted with cheers and shouts of “Yeah!”

The incident highlighted something that I don’t think most political commentators have fully absorbed: at this point, American politics is fundamentally about different moral visions.

Now, there are two things you should know about the Blitzer-Paul exchange. The first is that after the crowd weighed in, Mr. Paul basically tried to evade the question, asserting that warm-hearted doctors and charitable individuals would always make sure that people received the care they needed — or at least they would if they hadn’t been corrupted by the welfare state. Sorry, but that’s a fantasy. People who can’t afford essential medical care often fail to get it, and always have — and sometimes they die as a result.

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Think, in particular, of the children.

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[Arctic Dave]

1. Snarf. Does mean Krugman is out from under the bus? nt

[Donnachaidh]

2. only when he says something useful.

Let's keep his spot warm and dry for him, okay?

:rofl:

[ProSense]

3. More

"useful" information:

Krugman: "Obama jobs plan...significantly bolder and better than I expected"

The Slump Before The Slump

Busy day, so I won’t have much time to post. But I should weigh in on the Census report, many of whose key findings are summarized in this CBPP post.

Crucially, of course, the report documents the vast human damage being inflicted by a weak economy. It also documents the ways in which safety-net programs have at least mitigated that damage — notably, uninsurance among children has actually fallen thanks to SCHIP and Medicaid, unemployment insurance has literally kept millions above the poverty line, and the early features of the Affordable Care Act have helped hundreds of thousands of young adults retain insurance. We’ll have a fuller read on this, with the effects of food stamps and other in-kind benefits, next month.

But what struck me is the extent to which the suffering didn’t begin with the slump — many measures of pain were rising right through the “Bush boom”, and have merely continued that rise.

Exhibit 1 is “deep poverty”, people living below 50 percent of the poverty line:

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[ProSense]

4. Well

"Snarf. Does mean Krugman is out from under the bus?"

...does this mean you agree with his commentary?

[Arctic Dave]

9. Does this mean you agree with the rest of his comments? nt

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. Pretty Soon DU Will Be Like The Old Soviet Union

Pretty soon DU will be like the old Soviet Union who airbrushed historical figures out of photographs when they fell out of favor with the party.

[Donnachaidh]

6. or 1984

http://www.shmoop.com/1984/manipulation-quotes.html

And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. "Who controls the past," ran the Party slogan, "controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. "Reality control," they called it: in Newspeak, "doublethink." (1.3.18)

[DemocratSinceBirth]

7. I Have Never Been A Big Fan Of Throwing Somebody Under The Bus

It smacks of hypocrisy. If I like somebody when they agree with me I feel it's incumbent upon me to at least respect him or her when they don't.

[Jakes Progress]

8. What on earth are you doing here?

That makes so much sense, it is completely out of place here.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

11. Right

can't we all disagree without being disagreeable? :shrug:

[Arctic Dave]

10. LOL. No kidding.