As States Lead On Health Care, D.C. Elites Say Only D.C. Elites Can Save America

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As States Lead On Health Care, D.C. Elites Say Only D.C. Elites Can Save

America

 

By David Sirota

Created Jul 12 2007 - 2:45pm

 

Only in Washington, D.C. can people look at data, success and advances in

America's states, and still insist that only the Beltway's Wise Old Men,

Serious Policy Experts, Self-Described Political Gurus and Universe-Rescuing

Pundit Superheroes [1] can solve our country's problems. Yes, only inside

I-495 where theses Gods of Mt. Olympus frolick, can some so-called

"progressives" not only downplay - but aggressively attack - courageous

state legislators that are moving forward with progressive solutions to the

most challenging moral crises.

 

Case in point is the Beltway's professional pontificator and self-declared

national health policy "expert" Ezra Klein, who penned a laughably absurd

article in the Washington Monthly [2] about health care that is now being

circulated in political circles (I know, I know, it was in the WASHINGTON

Monthly - should we have expected something that wasn't D.C.-obsessed?). As

if blaring a homeland security alarm from the gilded rooftops of D.C.'s

office buildings, Klein courageously uses Lexis Nexis to put together a

supposed "investigative" report that ends up reading like stereo

instructions and that lectures progressive state legislators to stop wasting

their time working to move their states toward universal health care. Why?

Because, he says, the only solution can come from Unbelievably Smart and

Important Washington People like him. Yes, that's right, he says "states are

no good at delivering universal health care" - the implication being, of

course, that Wise Men in Washington have been just incredibly successful at

the endeavor.

 

I'll let Nathan Newman at the Progressive States Network [3] (on whose board

I serve) do the talking [4] here. In his new article that exposes Klein's

article as typical self-congratulatory D.C. propaganda, he shows that the

facts are, in fact, exactly the opposite - states are far, far better and

more experienced at delivering health care than The Glorious Leaders of

Washington. Though many Washington-based and Washington-focused progressives

likely haven't bothered to take a look, the data shows that the states have

quietly taken the lead in providing more and more health care to more and

more Americans. While no one argues that the federal government has played a

role in these successes, that role has been primarily financial - not

administrative. That is, the feds have cut some checks, but the hard work of

actually setting up and running the systems has been done not by the Serious

Thinkers or the Deities of Pennsylvania Avenue, but by the states.

 

Newman proceeds to discuss both the political and public policy advantages

of targeting universal health care campaigns at state legislatures. One

thing he doesn't mention (but I will) is the historical idiocy of claiming

that states - many bigger than European countries that provide national

health care - cannot provide universal health care. Spend 5 minutes on

Wikipedia [5], and you'll learn that Canada's much-vaunted universal health

care system began as a provincial initiative. The provinces provided both

the better political opportunities, and ultimately the better initial

implementation platform that ended up launching the federal program.

 

None of this is to say that the efforts to pass a universal health care

system at the federal level are a waste - they aren't, they are absolutely

critical, and those of us in the unwashed masses who dare to live in the

American heartland wouldn't make that kind of blanket attack on our allies

that Klein and other D.C. creatures typically launch against progressives in

the states. Perhaps that means the "arrogant" or "uniformed" lobes of our

primitive brains aren't as well-developed as the more advanced species in

Washington, but perhaps that just means that we have a little better sense

of clarity, facts, teamwork and Movement and a little more belief that the

Wise Old Men of Washington aren't any smarter than folks out here.

 

Lot's of folks in national progressive circles - donors, organizational

leaders, activists - talk a terrific game about truly respecting states, and

wanting to devote real resources to fighting battles in the states, as the

conservative movement has done so successfully. At some level, they seem to

vaguely sense that there are very important reasons why the conservative

movement is not as DC-focused as the progressive movement, and why it has

spent such huge resources aimed at dominating state policy [6] - especially

health care.

 

Yet, when it comes time to devoting real resources to the states, many (but

certainly not all) of these same folks slink away or, like Klein, unleash

half-baked attacks on the successes that are being forged in the states.

These folks are either too obsessed with the the pseudo-celebrity fanfare of

being able to meet a U.S. Senator (wow what a thrill!) or believe that by

actually focusing on the states they supposedly acknowledge that their work

in Washington is less relevant.

 

But it's not - it's not an either/or. Federal AND state campaigns are

critical if we are to enact public policy reforms that help the middle-class

and if we are to build a movement - not just build a cloistered club of

Washington elites and a stack of glossy personality profiles in Beltway

newsletters.

 

P.S. I know D.C. isn't a state, but Ezra, I'm betting right now [7] you

wouldn't be all that bummed if D.C. had its own universal health care plan.

We'll wait until after you recover from your $2,000 root canal to hear the

answer...

 

NOTE: I am a nice person, really I am - and I've congratulated Ezra for some

of his previous work, when it's dared to not regurgitate debunked,

Washington Conventional Wisdom. But nothing gets me more riled up than some

aspiring-to-be-elite pundit sitting in Washington feeling like the best way

to make themselves feel Important, Serious and Smart is to tell courageous

progressive champions in states and the organizations that support them that

their work is a waste - when in fact, the actual facts make such claims look

ridiculous, and when in fact even modest advances on an issue as critical as

health care means actually saving thousands of lives. Yes, I know that last

point about saving lives is some sort of afterthought inside the Beltway -

but as us in the unwashed masses out here in the hinterlands say, thems the

facts [8].

_______

 

 

 

About author David Sirota is a political strategist and NY Times bestselling

author whose work appears in major newspapers and magazines. He has appeared

on CNN, MSNBC, CNBC and The Colbert Report. He has appeared in TV debates

with right-wing icons like Ann Coulter, John Stossel and John Fund. Email:

david [at] davidsirota.com.

 

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"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their

spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their

government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are

suffering deeply in spirit,

and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public

debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have

patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning

back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at

stake."

-Thomas Jefferson