Kroog Versus The Village

Paul Krugman takes offense today at the Village panning the President's Wednesday night presser.

Mr. Obama was especially good when he talked about controlling medical costs. And there’s a crucial lesson there — namely, that when it comes to reforming health care, compassion and cost-effectiveness go hand in hand.

To see what I mean, compare what Mr. Obama has said and done about health care with the statements and actions of his predecessor.

President Bush, you may remember, was notably unconcerned with the plight of the uninsured. “I mean, people have access to health care in America,” he once remarked. “After all, you just go to an emergency room.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Bush claimed to be against excessive government expenditure. So what did he do to rein in the cost of Medicare, the biggest single item driving federal spending?

Nothing. In fact, the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act drove costs up both by preventing bargaining over drug prices and by locking in subsidies to insurance companies.

Now President Obama is trying to provide every American with access to health insurance — and he’s also doing more to control health care costs than any previous president.

I don’t know how many people understand the significance of Mr. Obama’s proposal to give MedPAC, the expert advisory board to Medicare, real power. But it’s a major step toward reducing the useless spending — the proliferation of procedures with no medical benefits — that bloats American health care costs.

And both the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats have also been emphasizing the importance of “comparative effectiveness research” — seeing which medical procedures actually work.

So the Obama administration’s commitment to health care for all goes along with an unprecedented willingness to get serious about spending health care dollars wisely. And that’s part of a broader pattern.

Or, it could be that the Village is always looking to frame the President's policies in terms of the Eternal Popularity Contest rather than their merits. It also could have everything to do with the big companies that run the Village have every interest in maintaining the status quo. Insurance companies and Big Pharma buy ads and sponsorships. GE, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, News Corporation...not exactly small companies.

Besides, picking on the President is cool. As Atrios says, policy is boring. Chiding the President on "not being post-race" is much more fun. I swear, the Village mission is befriending the incurious sound bite machine that was Bush, and then doing everything possible to feel smugly superior to Obama.

Wonder why that is.