The cancer of American politics

"For example, Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act in 2010 turned into something of a monstrosity during the legislative process as a result of all the concessions inside payments that had to be made to interest groups, including doctors, insurance companies, and the pharmaceutical industry. The bill itself ran to 900 pages…" -- Francis Fukuyama, Political Order and Political Decay, p. 480

Yes, indeed: the good done by the ACA could have been done with a 10-page bill subsidizing insurance coverage for everyone making under some amount per year. That means there are 890 pages of bad in there.

Comments

  1. What do you the most pressing issue in national politics is today?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Breaking the hold of the military-industrial complex on our politics.

      Delete
    2. That most people see ad hominem as sound.

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    3. Would that happen to include the security state?

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  2. So you don't think the insurance regulations did any good?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sure they did somebody some good, but enough good to be worth the huge complexity of the bill? I doubt it. Companies apparently have to hire ACA consultants to understand how to deal with it!

      Delete
    2. "Companies apparently have to hire ACA consultants to understand how to deal with it!"

      But that's job creation right there!

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  3. Indeed. A mandate makes a lot of sense, but you have to be willing to pay for it. End the employer exemption, give everyone X via a negative tax, and supply federally paid catastrophic insurance.

    ReplyDelete

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