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November 19, 2003

Max on "MediCrap"

Max has a good summary of what's wrong with the bill, but also seems in line with my analysis that the provisions aren't necessarily bad enough to make it all worthless:

While these are unsavory provisions, in my view they are also weak. They could prove to have little impact. I am less nervous about the policy consequences of this passing than most of my political brethren. For the same reason, some conservative House Republicans might jump ship. Meanwhile, a number of Democrats are supporting the bill. Rumor has it that the White House wanted something that got the support of the AARP, but for which Ted Kennedy and other liberals could not in good conscience vote. Ergo if the bill passes, Bush can say he got you a drug benefit in spite of those durn libruls, and if it fails, he can blame the same people.

Ironically, if Kennedy and all embraced the bill, Bush would probably be seeing even more conservatives abandoning the bill-- it's such a politcally nuanced pile that no one really likes it.

Posted by Nathan at November 19, 2003 09:37 AM