Krugman: So Obamacare will destroy our freedom?

[pampango]

Obamacare will destroy our freedom

Jonathan Chait and Aaron Carroll both have fun with Elizabeth Cheney's bonkers op-ed about how Obamacare will destroy our freedom.

As both note, the stirring quote from Ronald Reagan the younger Vader uses comes from the recording he made for Operation Coffee Cup, a 1961 project organized by the AMA to mobilize doctors’ wives and their friends against the looming horror of Medicare, which would clearly turn American into a totalitarian state.

And with Hayek, as with Reagan, the truly amazing thing is that we have people citing as a source of wisdom someone who has been as thoroughly refuted by history as anyone can be. Three generations into the modern welfare state, and western democracies look less Stalinist than ever.

Of course, you can still say that social insurance destroys freedom if you define freedom as the absence of social insurance — which isn’t quite what these guys are doing, but may capture the spirit of the thing.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/jack-booted-insurance-bringing-thugs/

I love Krugman's explanation of conservative circular logic: "you can still say that social insurance destroys freedom if you define freedom as the absence of social insurance".

[ProSense]

1. Yup, and Ted Cruz is employing that logic:

Ted Cruz says health care would be bad for people who don't have it
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/04/02/1198650/-Ted-Cruz-says-health-care-would-be-bad-for-people-who-don-t-have-it

[NoMoreWarNow]

2. definitely sounds like the conservative mindset

"you can still say that social insurance destroys freedom if you define freedom as the absence of social insurance".

"you can still say that gun control destroys freedom if you define freedom as the absence of gun control".

"you can still say that environmental regulations destroy freedom if you define freedom as the absence of environmental regulations".

etc

[Honeycombe8]

3. More Dems need to show up on tv and start repeating, repeatedly, the good things about the ACA....

to try to stop the spread of the propaganda.

The Dems are the worst at talking up the good about the bills they pass.

I don't think the ACA can be described as social insurance, though, if I understand the meaning of that term.