Taking Mr. Krugman to school Paul Krugman, New York Times [1]:
Earlier this week, The Times reported on Congressional backlash against the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a key part of efforts to rein in health care costs. This backlash was predictable; it is also profoundly irresponsible, as I’ll explain in a minute.
But something else struck me as I looked at Republican arguments against the board, which hinge on the notion that what we really need to do, as the House budget proposal put it, is to “make government health care programs more responsive to consumer choice.”
Here’s my question: How did it become normal, or for that matter even acceptable, to refer to medical patients as “consumers”?
Mr. Krugman, in the world of the sane, of which you have bet scant notion, it always acceptable to speak to the truth. Health care providers produce a service and consumers, who all called patients, consume it. Patients may in freer world be informed consumers or in Krugman’s uninformed consumers, but in any case they are consumers.
I suppose in Krugman’s world, unelected government bureaucrats be trusted to make better decisions that patients and their physicians. It that the way you see it your world?
Dumbo steps in it, for a self-proclaimed professor of constitutional law. Barack Obama is one bone dumb ignorant hick, from Michael Whitney, Fire Dog Lake [2]:
President Barack Obama made stunning accusations about accused Wikileaks whistleblower PFC Bradley Manning, directly asserting that Manning “broke the law.” Apparently the President of the United States of America and a self-described Constitutional scholar does not care that Manning has yet to be tried or convicted for any crime.
I happen to share Obama’s opinion, but I am not the chief law enforcement officer of the United States, and my opinion can not taint an entire jury pool.