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Health Care: Lost Opportunities to Compromise?

By Doug Bandow on 3.22.10 @ 2:43PM

David Frum calls passage of the health care bill a Republican/conservative Waterloo. After all, if only the Right had compromised, it could have extracted some concessions. He writes:

This time, when we went for all the marbles, we ended with none.

Could a deal have been reached? Who knows? But we do know that the gap between this plan and traditional Republican ideas is not very big. The Obama plan has a broad family resemblance to Mitt Romney's Massachusetts plan. It builds on ideas developed at the Heritage Foundation in the early 1990s that formed the basis for Republican counter-proposals to Clintoncare in 1993-1994.

Barack Obama badly wanted Republican votes for his plan. Could we have leveraged his desire to align the plan more closely with conservative views? To finance it without redistributive taxes on productive enterprise - without weighing so heavily on small business - without expanding Medicaid? Too late now. They are all the law.

Well, yes. Maybe offering some GOP votes would have made the monstrosity less bad. There would still be massive spending and subsidies, but an income tax hike instead of a Medicare tax hike. Or not quite as big a fine for failure to buy insurance. A smaller penalty on businesses which don't offer insurance. An amendment to preserve health savings accounts. Or something else.

Perhaps.

But how would such a measure have represented "traditional Republican ideas"? Mitt Romney's Massachusetts system has been a financial disaster which has left many people still uninsured and gaming the system, and primary care physicians stretched. There was little support among liberty-minded activists for an individual mandate even when it was advanced by Heritage. Counter-proposals to the Clinton program were acts of despair offered by those who feared that the proposed bureaucratic monster might actually be turned into law.

The Right did right fighting ObamaCare. Yes, we ended up four votes away from victory. But the battle crystalized the issue at a time when the majority of Americans believe that government has grown too big. Adding another budget-busting program--and any honest accounting shows it to be budget-busting--at this time was inexcusable. If one believes in limited government, then opposition was the only position possible.

In the past, too many Republicans have been too ready to accept Democratic ends if achieved through "Republican" means. That is, the GOP cheerfully voted to expand government, but only a little more slowly.

It's as if someone showed up and announced that he planed to burn down your neighborhood. One response would be to say no and fight. The other would be to beg that only half of the houses be burned down the first night and the rest on the second night. The latter outcome--essentially the approach advocated by Frum--might not be quite as awful as the former. After all, half of us could flee with our belongings before our homes went up in flames. But taking the first course, with at least a small chance of victory, would be far better.

Why bother getting involved in politics if one's goal is simply mitigating the worst policies, ensuring that government merely grows at, say, 2.79 percent rather than 3.11 percent a year? Or that when the federal government decides on policies, premiums, subsidies, and most everything else about health insurance, that it adopts a slightly less inefficient tax to fund its new spending?

Opposition was the only possible strategy. Frum might be right about the political impact: November is a long time away and it is dangerous to plan on redecorating leadership offices currently occupied by the other side. But if the Right does not take a stand on principle, then it will merely be arguing over who is the best manager of the bloated, costly, and meddling welfare state. That is not a debate worth having, at least among those who prefer to live in a society that deserves to be called free.

View all comments (27) | Leave a comment

Siegfried X| 3.22.10 @ 3:37PM

Republicans DID try to compromise. The Democrats never wanted anything besides a few RINOs signing onto a left-wing bill. The bill was to extreme for even the liberal Republicans like Snowe.

The entire Republican causus said they would be willing to compromise as long as talks started with a clean slate. In other words, a true compomise bill instead of Republicans signing onto Democratic legislation.

around the track| 3.22.10 @ 3:42PM

David Frum, David Brooks, David Gergen--interesting that three of the most visible advice-giving moderates/conservatives are always willing to sacrifice conservative principles to get what----their praise? Dump them. Don't even mention them.

Peter2011| 4.12.10 @ 4:12AM

The problem was not the lack cooperation, it was the lack of alternatives to get behind and support instead of just screaming no. If one cannot fashion a healthcare that provides for a free market to lower rates, one that makes absolutely sure there are no federal funds for abortion, one that provides states and localities flexibility to set in place their own plans, one changes the tax code that benefits the big insurance companies, one that could have peeled off votes from the far left or at least split the Democratic caucus, one that brings about, well just simple freedom when it comes to health insurance, then maybe you shouldn’t be in politics at all. I can find trained seals, monkeys and bears to vote no and I don’t need to pay them over $150,000 a year along WITH their generous health care benefits on top of it.

You see where lacking a strong grasp of policy gets you? You see where being enthralled to corporate donors gets you? Ron Paul submitted a health care plan. Did anyone on the GOP side promote it? No.
Peter health questions

Margie| 3.22.10 @ 3:47PM

The Republicans did what we wanted them to do. Not one voted for this fraudulent so-called health ins. plan. It is a planned takeover of our economy designed by a true Marxist.
Now~ we should be proud of the Republicans for doing what we've been wanting them to do, shouldn't we? Isn't this what so many always complain about? That they always give in to the Left? So good. Yet instead some want to blame them for this very thing! Unbelievable. They are damned if they do, damned if they don't.

Like Rush said today~ Hound the Democrats out of office. I'm with him. I'll be voting for conservatives in the Republican party because if we don't do this, we have only ourselves to blame, not the Republicans.

JanevonMises| 3.22.10 @ 4:11PM

It was a sad day for the Republic, despite the honorable efforts by the minority party.

Now, I want to make a request to all current and future Republican members of Congress.

Pledge to give us an "A" not a "C".

REPEAL vs. REPLACE

C, while passing, is simply not good enough.

The difference between the soaring expectations of the American Dream, and the humdrum, mediocre expectations of the Nanny State. There is no longer a reasonable opponent with whom to compromise. This is a fight for the American spirit.

No, Senator McConnell, we do not want your compromise.

Give us an A, not a C.

Wipe the stain from our honor, so that we may be exceptional once again.

Mary| 3.22.10 @ 4:35PM

Wrong wrong wrong!
That RINO clown must be ignored. We did right to fight it hook,line and sinker....We don't need anymore half way measures. Time now to fight for PURE conservatism and total repeal of this monster.
Half way measures like RINO Bush and McCain got us into this mess. Kick these clowns to the curb and stick with your convictions. When we take back the country these people will be persona non grata!

ZerObama| 3.24.10 @ 11:09PM

YEAH!!! Great post, Mary.

Becky| 3.22.10 @ 4:43PM

Obama the healer, wanted so badly to incorporate Republican ideas that he couldn't sell them to his party?

Was Frum hypnotized by staring at Obama's pressed pants legs or something?

I'm beginning to think that when intellectuals over analyze, they overwork their brains, and the end result is something like this peice of work.
It is a dull argument, quite possibly from a dull man.

Romneycare is also Mitt's undoing unless the economy in MA catches on fire in the next year.

It was a product of bipartisianship, a novel idea. Like a novel, it has proven to be fiction in the real world application. By what measure does Frum think it is proving a success to be a model for national implementation when the treasurer of MA has called it a failure?

Andrew| 3.22.10 @ 6:13PM

Yes, in the past, too many Republicans have been too ready to accept Democratic ends if achieved through "Republican" means. But I think we can all accept some Democratic ends as being Republican ends too. Health care ought to be more affordable, more widely available, and of higher quality. Plus taxes and deficits should be as low as possible. So how do we get there? The GOP needs to have a plan. That’s easier said than done, of course, but I wish we could all agree on the urgent need to find a consensus within the GOP.

Getting back to Bandow’s analogy about someone wanting to burn down your neighborhood, I would like to know WHY someone wants to burn the neighborhood. What do they hope to achieve? Is it because they don’t like the color of the houses? Well, maybe we can paint them. Is it because of some misunderstanding? Well, maybe we can correct the misunderstanding. Is it because of simple, blind hate? Well, maybe we can offer a gift of some sort to smooth things over (perhaps a large, hollow horse, for example).

sagman888| 3.22.10 @ 6:27PM

I never engage in name-calling. It's rude and anti-reason and unproductive. I much prefer to engage using ideas as my weapons.

But--I am sorry, I'm really very sorry that I am motivated to make this one exception to my rule. Mr. Frum, you are a boob. The words you use that make me think that are these:

"This time, when we went for all the marbles, we ended with none. Could a deal have been reached? Who knows?"

Given how the health are push went down from the beginning, all I can say, again, is, Mr. Frum, you are a boob. Wait. let me be more charitable. Mr. Frum, it is possible you are not a boob. Maybe you are just delusional.

A better mind than Mitts| 3.22.10 @ 6:46PM

Romney lost most of his 'marble' when he feels people will buy him taking both sides of the issue, according to his political desires. Mitt is not owed the presidency, Mitt is not for ordained to be president. Like his pop, he is brainwashed.

http://mittromney2012potus.blogspot.com/

good blog above on disingenuous Romney!

America is witness in Romney his raw partisanship and betrayal t this nation in his need to grasp the power reigns of America. Mitt is justifying the means to his end of become POTUS by being the biggest flip=flopper this nation has ever seen. Rather than pulling this nation together, Mitt is a devise force, not only in this nation, but in his political party. Romney is displaying the lowest denominator a politician can reach of pure disingenuous greed of lust for power. Romney is betraying this nation! We as American people deserve better than Romney can give!

code| 3.22.10 @ 8:56PM

Conservatives/Republicans/whatever you like to call yourselves - make up your mind!
Either you're in or you're out.
How can you condemn McCain, Romney, Brown, etc. as RINOs when you can't make up your mind whether you think it is better for the country for legislators to work with the Democrats or not?

Janice| 3.23.10 @ 1:14AM

Oh, we made up our minds a long time ago--NO MORE RINOS!!

bert| 3.23.10 @ 2:41AM

Why is the Obama front man david Frum even bothered with anymore?
This fraud is a Democrat operative that the Obama old media uses as a pitifull vehicle to attack , slander, and smear any Gop opposition.
Lets not bother with this creep anymore.

Ken (Old Texican)| 3.23.10 @ 10:05AM

NO COMPROMISE!

Bob| 3.23.10 @ 10:40AM

Frum is absolutely wrong from a political viewpoint. But Republicans are also wrong in being the party of "no" instead of PROMOTING fiscally conservative plans. Republicans are unanimous in criticizing "big government" but don't have any plans to make the government smaller. The largest part of federal spending is on entitlements -- Medicare and social security -- and Republicans have absolutely no plans that they all agree to that reduces spending on these programs. Why? Because the largest voting segment are seniors and to support getting entitlements under control means that fewer Republicans will get elected. Just look at the Republican criticism of reducing Medicare in the Obama plan-- they should be supporting a reduction of Medicare if they were really fiscal conservatives and acting on principle.

The real problem is that the Republican party is no longer the party of fiscal conservatism, it is the party of Christian fundamentalism which acts on belief, and not reason.

Nobama| 3.24.10 @ 11:08PM

Screw you, stupid; no one cares what you think.

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bwin| 7.1.10 @ 4:48AM

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Nicholas| 7.7.10 @ 11:57PM

I could not disagree more. This reform is going to do nothing but water down the existing health care system and reduce the quality for everyone.

Primegrattage| 7.8.10 @ 5:34AM

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Judy| 8.4.10 @ 4:00PM

Obama's plan may not have been the best idea but SOMETHING needs to be done about health care costs. My husband and I (both age 52 and healthy) pay between $17 thousand and $20 thousand a year out of pocket for health care (includes cost of policy) for just two of us. Our insurer offered no prescription coverage. Prescription costs are OUTRAGEOUS. I recently had a sinus infection and had to pay $465 for one months prescription. We are lucky we can afford it, most American's cannot. Judy at Green Bean Recipes