In today’s Crimson, Colin Motley and Caleb Weatherl knock off most of the requirements for your standard anti-Obamacare hit piece.
Invocation of public opinion without acknowledging that majorities favor the actual policies just enacted when they are described? Check.
“Government takeover of health care”? Check.
Moaning about how the bill isn’t “post-partisan,” while ignoring the fact that Republicans were never going to vote for any Obama-supported health care bill? Check.
Bland assertion that Republicans and Democrats agree that we need to reform health care, while ignoring that Republicans never demonstrated one iota of interest in health care reform when they were in power? Check.
Citation of Lanny Davis as if he could possibly know that Republicans would have voted Aye on anything? That one seems unique to Motley and Weatherl, but still, check.
Rote recitation of the phrase “along party lines” as if Republicans don’t bear responsibility for that outcome? Check.
Needlessly specific accounting of the number of pages consumed by the legislation, as if that figure means anything? Check.
The “16 percent of the economy” line? Check.
Selective quoting of the CBO and refusal to cite its deficit-reduction predictions? Check.
Ridiculing of the fact that Democrats actually propose to pay for their new program? Check.
Acknowledgment of the reason why health care can’t be treated like a market good (moral hazard) combined with the recommendation that it be treated essentially like a market good? Check plus for using the term “moral hazard”!
It’s a wonder the Crimson doesn’t just start syndicating Bill Kristol if this is what it publishes when it finally finds Republican commentators.