The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein has found what he thinks is a bright spot amid the gloomy Obamacare news. When you hear what he’s enthusiastic about, you’ll perhaps understand why I wonder if there is any common ground at all between liberals and conservatives. Klein reports that Obamacare’s “biggest success” is that 4 million new enrollees signed up for Medicaid as of November and the number should be even higher when December’s statistics are tallied. “If the point of health care reform is covering people who need health insurance, the expansion in Medicaid coverage should be a huge win.”
Sorry, but the expansion of dependence on government is never cause for rejoicing. Conservatives acknowledge that a safety net is necessary for the poor, but we regard only the number of people leaving a government program like Medicaid as cause for celebration, not adding to the numbers who receive benefits. Klein is hardly alone. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi describes unemployment benefits as the greatest possible “stimulus” to the economy. By this logic, we should put everyone on unemployment, right?
