By Glenn Greenwald
The Washington Post's Ezra Klein has an amazing post in which he trumpets what he calls the "Twilight of the Interest Groups" reflected by likely passage of the health care bill (h/t). Why are Interest Groups -- once so powerful in Washington -- now banished to their "twilight"? Because, says Ezra, "the Obama administration succeeded at neutralizing every single industry." If, by "neutralizing," Ezra means "bribing and accommodating them to such an extreme degree that they ended up affirmatively supporting a bill that lavishes them with massive benefits," then he's absolutely right. He himself notes what he calls the "remarkable level of industry consensus" in support of the bill:
Pharma supports the bill. Insurers are incoherent on it, but there's not a ferocious and united campaign to kill the proposal. The American Medical Association has endorsed the Senate bill. The hospitals have endorsed the bill. Labor has endorsed the bill. The business community is split, with larger employers holding their fire.
Indeed, PhRMA is so in favor of this bill that, over the last week, they've spent $6 million on an ad campaign aimed at undecided House Democrats to try to pressure them to vote for the bill. And while the most hackish Obama loyalists (echoing the administration) have been claiming that the health insurance industry is vehemently opposed to and working to defeat this bill, Ezra commendably acknowledges the reality that they have done little in that regard (Marcia Angell -- Professor at Harvard Medical School and the former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine -- said a few weeks ago of the health insurance industry: "What they're fighting for is the individual mandate. And if they get that mandate
, if everyone does have to buy their commercial products, then they're going to be extremely happy with it").
Now, if someone wants to argue (as Kevin Drum has) that sleazily bribing these industry interests with secret deals was a necessary evil -- a shrewd, pragmatic way to get a health care bill passed, without which it could not have happened -- that's one thing. I think that's debatable -- after all, the central promise of the Obama campaign was that it would circumvent those factions by appealing directly to the armies of citizen-supporters they had lined up -- but at least that's an honest, rational argument. Bribing these industries was ugly and sleazy but necessary.
But to pretend that this bill represents the "Twilight of the Interest Groups," that special interests have been "neutralized," that this bill is some sort of great victory over the health insurance and drug industries, is just hagiography and propaganda. Being able to force the Government to bribe and accommodate you is not a reflection of your powerlessness; quite the opposite. Everyone would love to be forced into a "twilight" like that. It's one thing for the Obama administration and the DNC to issue self-serving claims like this (we've stood up to the insurance and drug companies!), but those who hold themselves out as commentators ought to keep their feet on their ground.
http://www.salon.com/news/healthcare_reform/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2010/03/20/health_care
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