Public Option

Paul Krugman writes about the importance of the public option in the health care reform plan. It makes sense: the public option would keep the costs down. But I think many people are against it purely out of ideological reasons. They grew up with Reaganomics: private good, public bad.

Let me add a sort of larger point: aside from the essentially circular political arguments — centrist Democrats insisting that the public option must be dropped to get the votes of centrist Democrats — the argument against the public option boils down to the fact that it’s bad because it is, horrors, a government program. And sooner or later Democrats have to take a stand against Reaganism — against the presumption that if the government does it, it’s bad.


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