Paul Krugman Missed One Today

I enjoy reading Paul Krugman's column and his books and I go to his lectures. I always learn something. Today I read Fools On The Hill, a post on his blog, and learned he can be wrong too.

I couldn't agree more that the pack of cowards on the Hill are fools-- and worse. He correctly points out that-- quite predictably-- they're in "panic mode." I suspect he wants to vomit as much as I do. But after that, we part company. "[T]he strategy," he writes, "of playing Republican-lite, and hoping that you’ll be left alone, has been tried-- and failed disastrously... It’s up to the House, which can and should just pass the Senate bill."

The Senate bill sucks; really and truly sucks. They should do it over. In fact, what they should do is just expand Medicare (which would automatically get rid pre-existing condition exemptions), go after insurance companies that discriminate against women, overturn the Republican deal with Big Pharma to ban drug importation and... then turn on Wall Street in a serious way. Republican-lite? I don't think so. A very smart man pointed out that "Democrats have to realize that politics isn’t just about where you stand on issues, it’s about perceptions of a party’s character. The rap on Dems has always been that they’re wimps-- and giving in on such a central part of the party’s agenda, emerging from two years in power with nothing major to show for it, will play right into that perception." And there's no reason on earth to stick America with a bad bill when there's an opportunity to make it much, much better -- as well as simpler and easier to understand and build support for.

Scott Brown's victory can be turned into a real triumph-- despite Scott Brown-- for the American people. Committing political suicide by forcing through a Senate bill that the whole country hates isn't the correct approach for Democrats.