The Obama Delusion and Health Care Reform

The Obama Delusion: The belief that although President Obama is a liberal and has liberal values and goals, he cleverly pretends not to be a liberal in order to to fool Republicans into supporting his agenda.

{{Sigh…}} Where to begin? While perusing Memeorandum this morning, I noticed Booman’s post from yesterday about “11-dimensional chess.” Frankly, the less said about Booman’s post, the better. It’s just embarrassingly silly and illogical. Besides, Big Tent Democrat, who coined the term “11-dimensional chess,” has already handily disposed of Booman’s arguments, such as they are.

Booman’s post was prompted by one at the Cheeto in which the author, Maimonides, makes the claim that Obama, along with his trusty enforcer Rahm Emanuel, are actually using not 11-dimensional chess, but “Sun Tzu’s the strategy of “formlessness,” outlined in this quote:

“Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.”

Here is what Maimonides thinks Obama and his capo are up to:

For several months now I’ve been pushing the idea that President Obama is engaged in the Sun Tsu strategy of “formlessness.” This strategy is not the much-derided “11-D Chess” that so many choose to dismiss. This is the very simple and time-tested strategy of not taking a position that is easily defined by your opponents, of not giving them anything to attack. By doing so, one forces one’s opponents to take positions, giving you the advantage of adaptability and information, which they now lack.

Maimonides also claims to have some vital inside information, but, sadly, he/she cannot reveal the sources of that information.

You may not see reports of what Rahm Emanuel says to your Congressperson. You may not hear rumors of it. But it is going on all the time; what did you think he spent his time doing, checking in on Dkos diaries? Rahm is putting pressure where he is told to, floating trial balloons as directed, keeping all options on the table, and most of all keeping Obama’s strategy of formlessness alive. Until he’s directed otherwise.

Which brings us to now. Rumor in DC* is that Rahm has gotten exactly what he wanted: a “Big mess,” as Rahm reportedly described it. Formlessness has payed off. There are virtually no Congressional players left whose opinions we do not know, and every option has been talked to death. And now the Administration, rather than having its policies debated to death, has the ability to sweep in and choose among the options presented.

*Here I open myself to claims that I’m using unsourced “insider knowledge”, which is true, I am. You can take it or leave it, but I would hope that you would be open to the possibility that those of us working in the trenches may hear things that you do not.

Okay? See, Maimonides has inside sources, because he/she “works in the trenches.” But we just have to take that and the “rumors” Maimonides has heard on faith–just like we have to take on faith that Obama wants health care for all at a reasonable price.

Here’s the thing. In a sense I agree with Maimonides that Rahm and Barack have gotten exactly what they wanted–a “big mess.” And for all I know, Obama and Emanuel may both have read Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and may be using it as a guide for their political strategy. But whether the “mess” is the result of a deliberate strategy or just one big clusterf*ck is irrelevant to the President’s actual goals for health care “reform.”

I completely disagree with Maimonides on why Obama and Emanuel wanted health care “reform” to turn into a “big mess.” What’s important her is not the strategy, but the goals. Maimonides thinks that Obama wants Congress to pass a bill with a public option. I think their goal is to have Congress pass a bill without a public option; and that their fallback position is to accept a bill that includes a completely meaningless public option–forced on them by Congress. That way, whatever the fate of the public option, Congress and not the President and his Chief of Staff will be blamed. Maimonides assumes Obama is a liberal who shares Maimonides values. I figured out long ago that Obama is no liberal.

BTD, who coined the term “11-dimensional chess,” also believes that Obama would prefer the bill not to have a public option:

The realization that Obama was not going to fight for the public option came early to most of us. The same realization made us realize that he would ACCEPT a public option if it was the only way he could achieve health care reform. The battle then was to make inclusion of the public option the only viable way to get health care reform.

But BTD is also ignoring the fact “the public option” that we are likely to get is so watered down, and such a tiny part of the overall plan that has been proposed, that even if the bill includes a so-called public option, it won’t make much of a dent in the massive profits the insurance and pharmaceutical industries are looking forward to.

Here’s a great comment from BTD’s thread (h/t Katiebird) that perfectly illustrates psychological manifestations of The Obama Delusion.

I believe Obama got it on the Public Option. The reason he hasn’t been “fighting for it” is quite simple- he knows it’s not enough for him to fight for it- He needs us to fight for it.
He aptly cited the anecdote of FDR asking do you want this program- the n saying good now make me do it.
Hillary would have taken the approach that her fighting could get it done- President Obama’s approach has been that together we can make it happen- Our obligation did not end when we cast our vote- It is up to us every day to make this country into what it can be.

The President is challenging us all to live up to our potential in forcing the issue.

Where do the “progs,” as Joseph Cannon calls them, get the idea that Barack Obama truly wants a strong public option to provide competition for private insurance plans? Is there any real evidence for such a belief? Let’s see. His website claims he wants one.

“Offers a public health insurance option to provide the uninsured and those who can’t find affordable coverage with a real choice.”

So this public option will just be for people who don’t have insurance and/or can’t afford insurance. What will that look like in the overall plan. Well, here is one map of what the plan (at least based on what little is really known about it) calls for (see a larger version here).

I’m not very good at reading flow charts, so if I’ve got this wrong, please correct me. It looks to me like only 8.7 million Americans will get to have a subsidized public plan and another 3.8 million will get to pay out-of-pocket for a public plan. I’m not so good at math either, but it seems to me that with only 12.5 million people using the public plan, 122 million people getting private insurance through their employers, and 25 million people being forced to buy individual private insurance, the piddling little “public option” isn’t going to provide a whole lot of competition for the private insurance companies.

That’s where the plan stands as far as we know. Now is there any evidence that Obama really wants a more “robust” public option and that he’s hoping people like Senators Schumer and Rockefeller will make that happen?

I just don’t see it. As BTD said, Obama has indicated that he’ll go along with a public option if that is the only way to get the bill he wants passed. As far as I can tell, the notion of a public option is no long anything threatening to Obama’s corporate donors–maybe they’d prefer a bill without it, but they can probably live with just 12 million people not having to buy their products. The government subsidies they’ll most likely be getting will make up for those losses and then some.

I even went back and reread Obama’s exposition on health care reform in his book The Audacity of Hope to see if his original plan was more “progressive” than the one now moving through Congress. His ideas are spelled out on pages 184-185, in case you want to read them too. I was actually surprised to see how closely the various plans currently being discussed resemble the description in Obama’s book, which, BTW, doesn’t include any “public option,” but just recommends that people be grouped into large “pools” by state or some other criterion and that private insurance companies “compete” to get their business. It seems clear to me that Obama never wanted to expand government supported health coverage and only included a “public option” in order to suck in the public and the deluded progs.

I’ve reached the point where I don’t even care *why* the Obama Delusion persists, or whether Obama is really playing “11-dimensional chess” or following Sun Tzu’s strategy of “formlessness.” It’s really his goals that matter, not his strategy or whether he even has one. The biggest mistake the progs are making is in persisting in thinking that Obama has goals that are similar to theirs. He’s just not a liberal, he never was a liberal, and he never will be a liberal.

digg!!! tweet!!! share!!!

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Furl | Newsvine