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Town Hall Crowd Shoots Health Message: Caroline Baum
Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Members of Congress have gone home for the August recess, and a relaxing vacation it isn’t.
At town hall meetings across the country, lawmakers are on the receiving end of voter anger at the way health-care reform is being sandwiched into an artificial timeline, railroaded through Congress and forced on a skeptical public.
Americans can kvetch about the health-care system, but it looks good compared to what Congress is offering.
Accusations that the protests are being organized by conservative groups are beside the point. It’s always easy to mobilize those who receive concentrated benefits, be it farmers in the case of agricultural price supports or the elderly when it comes to opposing Social Security privatization.
It’s much harder to catalyze those who pay what public- choice theorists call “diffuse costs,” meaning everyone pays a little, says David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington.
Boaz says President Barack Obama has “heightened public awareness of expanded government” with his efforts to stimulate the economy, save the environment (through a cap-and-trade plan to limit carbon emissions) and remake health care. A lot more people can expect to pay a lot more in taxes, Obama’s assurances to the contrary notwithstanding, which is why the public is energized by the health-care debate.
Congressional Democrats claim conservative groups are spreading lies about health-care reform, encouraging opponents to attend town hall meetings and instructing them what to say and how to say it.
Self-Interested Protesters
Both sides are guilty of spewing falsehoods and offering pie-in-the-sky promises about health care -- more and better care that costs less -- so the Democrats need to get off their high horse.
And when it comes to encouraging the party’s base, “Obama just sent out an e-mail to 13 million supporters telling them to go to town hall meetings and providing them with talking points,” Boaz says. “No one is busing opponents in. No one is paying them to attend.”
Besides, people don’t give up a Saturday at the beach with friends and family for something that isn’t in their self- interest.
Could the protesters be more polite and speak in turn instead of interrupting their congressman? Of course they could. The party of Nancy Pelosi, Michael Moore and MoveOn.org could start by setting an example.
More at link...
Town Hall Crowd Shoots Health Message: Caroline Baum
Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Members of Congress have gone home for the August recess, and a relaxing vacation it isn’t.
At town hall meetings across the country, lawmakers are on the receiving end of voter anger at the way health-care reform is being sandwiched into an artificial timeline, railroaded through Congress and forced on a skeptical public.
Americans can kvetch about the health-care system, but it looks good compared to what Congress is offering.
Accusations that the protests are being organized by conservative groups are beside the point. It’s always easy to mobilize those who receive concentrated benefits, be it farmers in the case of agricultural price supports or the elderly when it comes to opposing Social Security privatization.
It’s much harder to catalyze those who pay what public- choice theorists call “diffuse costs,” meaning everyone pays a little, says David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington.
Boaz says President Barack Obama has “heightened public awareness of expanded government” with his efforts to stimulate the economy, save the environment (through a cap-and-trade plan to limit carbon emissions) and remake health care. A lot more people can expect to pay a lot more in taxes, Obama’s assurances to the contrary notwithstanding, which is why the public is energized by the health-care debate.
Congressional Democrats claim conservative groups are spreading lies about health-care reform, encouraging opponents to attend town hall meetings and instructing them what to say and how to say it.
Self-Interested Protesters
Both sides are guilty of spewing falsehoods and offering pie-in-the-sky promises about health care -- more and better care that costs less -- so the Democrats need to get off their high horse.
And when it comes to encouraging the party’s base, “Obama just sent out an e-mail to 13 million supporters telling them to go to town hall meetings and providing them with talking points,” Boaz says. “No one is busing opponents in. No one is paying them to attend.”
Besides, people don’t give up a Saturday at the beach with friends and family for something that isn’t in their self- interest.
Could the protesters be more polite and speak in turn instead of interrupting their congressman? Of course they could. The party of Nancy Pelosi, Michael Moore and MoveOn.org could start by setting an example.
More at link...
