With a major tip of my imaginary hat to James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal, here are a few quotes about the Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital system, from left wing sources that I\’m sort of guessing they would like to take them back:
Therewas no ObamaCarein January 2006, when formerEnron adviser Paul Krugman wrote this:
“Iknow about a health care system that has been highly successful incontaining costs, yet provides excellent care. And the story of thissystem\’s success provides a helpful corrective to anti-governmentideology. For the government doesn\’t just pay the bills in thissystem–it runs the hospitals and clinics.
“No,I\’m not talking about some faraway country. The system in question isour very own Veterans Health Administration, whose success story isone of the best-kept secrets in the American policy debate.”
The”secret” of the VA\’s “success,” Krugman argued,”is the fact that it\’s a universal, integrated system.”That saves on administrative costs and allows for efficientrecord-keeping. .
Krugmanis far from alone in having oversold the VA. TimothyNoah, then with Slate.com, proclaimed in 2005: “Socializedmedicine has been tried in the United States, and it has provensuperior to health care supplied by the private sector. . . .The socialized medicine to which I refer is the complex of hospitalsmanaged by the Veterans Administration.” His post, “TheTriumph of Socialized Medicine,” was based on a WashingtonMonthly article by PhillipLongman, which carried the slightly more modest headline “TheBest Care Anywhere.””And in 2009, EzraKlein revealed that “one of my favorite ideas” is”expanding the Veterans Health Administration to non-veterans.”
When do you figure you will hear from Mr. Krugman – and Mr. Noah, and Mr. Longman, and Mr. Klein…etc. etc. etc. about how wrong they were regarding the quality of VA care, and how frightening a specter this creates regarding prospects for ObamaCare – which is also a government-run health care system?
I figure you\’ll be hearing from them about two weeks after Nancy Pelosi renounces the Democrat Party, forms her own Tea Party cell and starts advocating for a ban on all abortions and prayer in the schools.
My hat (if I ever wear one) is again off to James Taranto for reminding us of what these folks said. Because, with mainstream media in its current one-side-of-the-aisle condition, how else would we get this reality reprise?
Well done, James. Someone has to keep them honest…or at least keep reminding us that they are dishonest.
