Paul Krugman Returns To Obama-Bashing

Is the Barack Obama who exists in the real world even the same person who Paul Krugman sees in his head? Krugman, a long time Obama-hater who frequently copied the tactics of the right in his smears against Obama during the primary campaign, tries to make news by announcing he doesn’t like Obama.That is sort of like Lex Luthor putting out a post saying he doesn’t like Superman.

Krugman’s latest shock regarding Obama comes from this statement in an interview with George Stephanopoulos

I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements of the package that people agree on. We know that we need insurance reform, that the health insurance companies are taking advantage of people. We know that we have to have some form of cost containment because if we don’t, then our budgets are going to blow up and we know that small businesses are going to need help so that they can provide health insurance to their families. Those are the core, some of the core elements of, to this bill. Now I think there’s some things in there that people don’t like and legitimately don’t like.

Obama repeats his support for insurance reform and cost containment yet Krugman mischaracterizes this as “Run away, run away”!

There are lots of things in the Senate bill that people don’t like, and I’m not talking about the tea baggers who oppose it without any understanding of what the bill contains.  House liberals do not want to pass the Senate bill. Labor opposes passage of the Senate bill.

The White House is making it clear they are not running away from health care reform. For example, this statement is on the White House Blog:

On Next Steps for Health Reform

Right now there are a lot of discussions going on about the best path forward. But let’s be clear that the President’s preference is to pass a bill that meets the principles he laid out months ago: more stability and security for those who have insurance, affordable coverage options for those who don’t, and lower costs for families, businesses, and governments.

Tuesday’s results in Massachusetts do provide reason to repackage health care reform and to show that Obama understands there are aspects of the bill which people do not like. What is also notable is that polls show that as many people oppose the current legislation because it does not go far enough as oppose it because of believing it goes too far. Many people who oppose the plan do so based upon major misconceptions as to what it contains. It just might not be a bad idea to try to get Americans behind health care reform by revising the bill and explaining it better to the American people as opposed to trying to ram it down their throats and pretend everyone will love the bill in November (before they can actually see the benefits).

1 Comment

  1. 1
    Eideard says:

    I voted for Obama.  I got Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.
    No one in the White House accepts or is willing to fight for democracy in the Senate.  41 cretins trumps 59 cowards.
    I agree with Krugman.

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