Why David Brooks Just Doesn't Get It

In his column this morning, David Brooks, the voice of the so-called "moderate" Republicans (an oxymoron if ever there was one) criticizes the worryingly manic knee-jerk reactions of the Republicans to Obama's evolving plan to deal with the economic crisis. He opens the column promisingly by arguing that while "the Democratic response to the economic crisis has its problems, ...lets face it, the current Republican response is totally misguided." He usefully scolds the non-leadership of John Boehner whose call for a spending freeze at a time of a tsunami-like economic meltdown is so childlike that you would think he was receiving daily talking points from Jonathan Krohn (see my earlier post). Brooks also criticizes the cynically moronic pseudo populism of McCain and Co. in calling for Obama to allow banks, including AIG, to fail. We did that with Lehman brothers, remember? And what did that do? It only caused the entire European banking system to come to a grinding halt, throwing Iceland into the abyss of bankruptcy and causing a near revolution in Ukraine. In any case, David Brooks urges the Republicans to step up to the podium and accept Obama's necessary intervention in the economy while offering constructive criticism to the Democrats.

In particular, David is highly critical of Obama's multifaceted approach to the crisis that involves dealing with health care, education, and energy policy reform at the same time he is trying to stimulate the economy, help the unemployed, and save the banking system from a total meltdown. He urges his fellow Republicans to point out that instead of putting out the fire to our collective home, Obama and the Democrats are redecorating the house. The core of David Brooks' argument against the Democrats is summarized by this statement:"Democrats apparently think that dealing with the crisis is a part-time job, which leaves the afternoons free to work on long-range plans to reform education, health care, energy, and a dozen small things."

The column shows that after all these years of being wrong--on Iraq, George Bush, WMD, Iran, the election--David Brooks still does not get it! Period. He is either analytically challenged, blinded by his ideology or both. The whole point of Obama's aggressive effort to tackle these "long-term" issues IS to fix the economy. Health care reform is as inseparable from economic recovery as the fixing of the banking system is from thawing the credit markets.

It is a fact (you know the thing that is always so uncomfortable for right-wing ideologues) that health care costs have seriously crippled our economy and our way of life. A health care research institute projected that health care costs for 2006 in the US surpassed 2 trillion dollars. That is more than our current deficit and it is three times the cost of health care in 1990. Rising premiums are crippling not only the government--whose Medicaid and Medicare programs are draining state and federal budgets--but also employers and individuals. Thus, GM (the automotive giant we are so desperately trying to save) has announced a whopping $5 billion in yearly health care payments to its workers. How in the world can GM afford to pay $5 billion after losing $20 billion in one year!? The health care costs are wreaking daily havoc on millions of families throughout this country. Besides the 40 million Americans without health insurance, the recession is seriously weakening the lifestyle of even those who are insured by their employer. On May 4, 2008 NYT reported that skyrocketing premiums, less extensive coverage, and bigger deductibles were draining families' paychecks. For example, a man working for a local utility company in Tuscon, AZ reported that he had to pay $4,000 for his family's annual doctor's visit on top of $1600 per year in premiums. For those many Republicans who seem incapable of basic algebra, this totals almost $6000 per year, per middle-class family!

Instead of robotically repeating tax cuts and making an embarrassment of themselves maybe David Brooks and his colleagues ought to pick up an Algebra 101 book and educate themselves before speaking publicly and wasting everyone's time.