The Public vs Private Universities analogy was a BRILLIANT stroke...

[scheming daemons]

...works much better than the USPS/UPS/FedEx analogy.


That one caught the ear of my apolitical wife.


Great framing.

[Rosco T.]

1. we have a brilliant president :) n/m

[rudy23]

2. Agreed. Way better than the postal analogy.

I'm totally using that on my coworkers.

[Posteritatis]

3. I loved that one - so much better than the health v auto insurance comparisons (nt)

[Sherman A1]

9. I actually liked the auto insurance one

I thought it good to explain the point of requiring insurance for all (the 18 & invincible crowd, that the RW loves to use as an example of the uninsured who "don't want health insurance") and making that a requirement.

[Posteritatis]

12. It'd work if you were physically required to also have a car, but you aren't. (nt)

[redqueen]

4. Yep.

I expect the support that was weakened by the republican lies to pick back up. *crosses fingers*

[Berry Cool]

5. Everyone understands it immediately and many people have direct experience with it and have

benefited from it.

Most people know someone who graduated from State U. Maybe it was them. Maybe their kids.

They know State U. didn't put Harvard, Yale, etc., out of business.

Brilliant.

[Luminous Animal]

6. Except we get to choose whether or not

we want to save money and go to a public university AND public universities are supported by tax dollars. It is only a brilliant stroke when you define brilliant as lying by omission.

[pnwmom]

11. The point was to appeal to people who oppose the public plan -- which it

did very well. The idea is that publicly run institutions can succeed very well, even without hurting private institutions. (And even despite the subsidies given to the public institution.)

If he was trying to appeal to those who already support the public plan, there would have been no need for an analogy.

[FLDCVADem]

7. I disagree

The President was trying to sell the idea of a public plan with no government subsidies by touting institutions (public universities) that only succeed because they are heavily subsidized by the government.

Shouldn't take the Republicans more than 15 minutes to twist that soundbite.

[enlightenment]

10. Yep. Last time I looked, most public higher education institutions

were being subsidized in the neighborhood of 50% per student. It's not really a secret, either . . .

[FLDCVADem]

14. Yep

My concern is that this now becomes a talking point a la "Obama is lying because the only reason public universities survive is through government subsidies. He's obviously planning to heavily subsidize the public option as well".

[Berry Cool]

19. It depends on the institution.

I used to work for a state university, and it was getting to the point where its public subsidy was shrinking so much that we joked that it had once been a state-supported university, but was moving toward becoming merely a state-LOCATED university.

[pnwmom]

13. The point is that even with those subsidies, the existence of good public institutions

hasn't hurt the private competitors at all.

[FLDCVADem]

15. I understand his point

I just don't think it's a good idea to push for an option that you promise won't be subsidized by touting the success of entities that are ONLY successful because of heavy government subsidies.

[pnwmom]

18. They could be successful without the subsidies, if they charged students

the full cost of education. But we, as a society, have made the decision that we all benefit from subsidizing education.

[FLDCVADem]

20. Yes, I understand that

My point is that I don't think it's a good idea to tout a public plan that you've just said won't be subsidized by pointing to the success of institutions that are heavily subsidized.

It's comparing apples and oranges.

[pnwmom]

21. The point is that there are excellent institutions of learning that are run by

the government -- whereas the other side denies that the government can do anything right.

The fact that some of the funds come from the government instead of all from tuition has little to do with it.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

8. A DUer had that framing here a few weeks ago.

I wish I could recall who, but I heard it the very next day on a talk show. Good ideas and descriptions get traction. Sometimes lots of people get the same idea simultaneously and feed off each other. You may not ever have ownership of an idea but it's great how somehow you are plugged into the zeitgeist and contribute to a happy outcome.

[Polemicist]

17. Is this what you saw?

I posted this on August 26th...

No Public Libraries...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cause they harm booksellers by lowering book sales and it might put them out of business.

No Public Transportation...Cause people riding buses might prevent auto makers from selling more cars and it might put them out of business.

No Public Universities...cause the choice of state schools might cause Harvard to go broke.

No Public Schools...Cause if we had public schools, religious schools would be forced to close because of a lack of students.

No Public Roads....cause who would pay a toll, when they can drive on the freeway? And it will hurt the private railroads.

No Public Rest Rooms...cause we should be a pay to piss society.

And...isn't it stupid to think a public option for health insurance will cause any more harm to private health care than the public options above did to books, cars, education, railroads, and bathrooms.

It's just another choice among many. Some people will prefer private insurance and some will prefer public insurance. No one will be put out of business and past experience with other public options clearly shows that to be true.

[MissMarple]

16. Public education has always been a bargain, a fabulous bargain..

[berni_mccoy]

22. Yes, it was.