With a Good Question, Weaseling is Harder

I attended Congressman Jay Inslee’s health care townhall meeting in Edmonds, Washington, on August 30th. I’ll be blogging about that later today over at It’s Only Words but in the meantime, I wanted to throw this out.

As was to be expected, one of the people who spoke at the townhall asked the now-obligatory question, “Is Congress willing to be subject to the plan currently under debate?” Inslee’s answer, of course, was “yes,” and it wasn’t a lie.

The problem lies not in Inslee’s answer, but in the question itself. Asking the question in such general terms allows him to skirt the issue, and do so with a clear conscience. “Yes, we’ll be subject to the same conditions as everyone else…” and then the unspoken caveat, “which will allow us to keep our current plan as long as our employer continues to offer it.”

It occurs to me that the real question is this: With a “perfectly good” public option in place, is Congress willing to abandon their current, privately underwritten plan and participate in the public option? Furthermore, are they willing to put it on the table during negotiations with SEIU?

I hear the coverage is going to be great and it’s going to save money, right? Sounds like a no-brainer to me, but I’m pretty sure Congress doesn’t have the brains to figure it out.

Other Posts of Interest:

• Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Botox of Pelosi
• As It Happens, Americans Don’t Tend to Think Health Care Costs Are Driving Them Toward Eating Dog Food
• If The DNC Will Lie For You, Will They Lie About You?

Tags: National Health Care

Category: Our New Democratic Overlords