The Jingos’ Big Fight

The preamble to this morning’s unsigned rupertorial is worthy of your attention, Dr. Bones:

The Public Option Goes Over The big fight over ObamaCare is far from finished. So it looks as if the public option has been sent to the death panel—so to speak. (...)

To gloss each precious line of it briefly:

(1) The slaves of Murdoch really do seem to be tryin’ to emulate Their Master's voice. In Chicagoland English, "X goes over" can only mean "X has been successfully marketed." In Austrobrittic, or call it Middle High Rupertesque, it evidently means "X has been jettisoned." Once they get all their neocommunities gated foolproofly, the language of OnePercenters will no doubt diverge more and more from that of their predestinate inferiors. [0]

(2) This will be our main scribble in a moment. Since the jingos wanna fly it way up their flagpole, though, I presume they think that vast popular movement, the ’Óh'vei Beitûah G'dôláh, "Lovers of Big Insurance™" may start their gloatin’ too soon.

(3) The relationship between Jingo-class OnePercenters and their dupes and marks and Party base ’n’ vile is nicely hit off by "sent to the death panel--so to speak." That relation contains a large element of "wink, wink, nod, nod" -- as it were. The neogentry know better than to believe in death panels, but "Hey, it worked, dinnit?"


OK, now that that's out of the way, what fight do the jingos wanna pick next?

Not a hard question, Dr. Bones. In fact, you and I have already guessed it. But here it is, straight from the keyboard of the professional twistifier:

The idea of creating member-owned co-ops in the states ... isn't necessarily harmful. But if regulated as advertised by Democrats like Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid, they'd be satellites of Washington and have 50 open checks drawn on the Treasury, creating the insurance industry equivalents of Fannie Mae. Another path may be to ... regulate who the insurers must cover, how generous the benefits must be and how much they can charge, including a limit on out-of-pocket spending. If Democrats decide to centrally plan the insurance market, in what sense is that different from a public option?

I have stigmatized the devil word, which is unnecessary between us and the Muses but may assist casual passers-by.

Neocomradess I. Twist here will, I suppose, be in a similar position vis-à-vis her own OnePercenterly neocomrades. Many or most paper-totin’ Jingos do not need to be warned of the evils of 1930's-style regulation. They are well aware that the only True Freedom is the freedom to bigmanage, which of course makes Fedguv Regulation not only icky and bad for the bottom line, but the veritable Road to Serfdom. Yet I. Twist cannot preach to the AEIdeological choir alone, for the ranks of the economic OnePercenters have never consisted entirely of neocomrades with hands-on experience of the practice of Big Management. There are still, no doubt, a number of coupon clippers left, though I doubt they actually clip coupons any more, plus spouses and kiddies. Also M. Georges du Soros and the whole phalanx of class traitors, though I daresay they are beyond the reach of any agitprop that His Presslordship disseminates.

Managée I. Twist continues in her WWNN mode as already noted: she could explain with ease why icky Regulation "is that different from a public option" if she chose. But no doubt it is better for the Kiddie Konservative Kause as a whole that she not do this. She may even be runnin’ a risk her by havin’ just mentioned one significant difference herself: "50 open checks drawn on the Treasury" is quite unnecessary. The Evil Regulators can do their dirty business very cheaply indeed, with or without "member-owned co-ops in the states," because that dirty business is overwhelmingly a matter of JUST SAY NO. [1]

To be sure, if zealot disciples of R*nd and N*z*ck were to start dodgin’ regulation of medical insurance the same way purveyors of cocaine and heroin are complled to, enforcement costs might rise alarmingly. Considering the nature of the commodity to be bootlegged, though, that is no likely scenario.

"If health insurance is regulated, only Evil Regulators will have guns."

But Father Zeus knows best about dotty scenarios.

Closer to home, Neocomradess I. Twist is only slightly coy about what strategy Their Master's voice prefers: "Or drop the scheme entirely and focus on improving the economy."

But as you see, Mr. Bones, formally, that is only the Jingo's Plan B. Here's the whole Big Picture, as viewed from the bigmanagerial penthouse:

[The 2008] election was not a call for larger government or a return to 1970s-era entitlement liberalism a la Henry Waxman or Pete Stark. Rather, it was in favor of the amorphous change—"change we can believe in"—to clean up the Beltway mess and toss out an exhausted GOP. The best health-care option now is to attempt a truly bipartisan reform, likely one built on individual tax credits for private health insurance. Or drop the scheme entirely and focus on improving the economy. The Democratic walk-back on the public option is just a few steps. This fight is a long way from over.

Comrade Frank of Kansas might want to snip that little gem for his scrapbook. The neocomradess of undisclosed name nicely illustrates how his "wrecking crew" wanna reduce their own Fedguv to an ‘amorphous’ ‘mess’ and then run against it for bein’ exactly what they made it.

As for change that WE can believe in, Dr. Bones, the Muses and you and I, that will happen when the militant extremist GOP stops bein’ able to get away with that self-servicin’ scam.

Meanwhile, even I. Twist and her Proprietor deem it advisable to pretend (at least a little) to want to do somethin’ about the Amorphous Medical Mess. I suspect it will be a hoot to examine the OnePercenters’ "individual tax credits for private health insurance," should they ever trouble to work up a detailed proposal. Unfortunately at this point the Twist gang have no reason to brighten other folks’ lives with a little free entertainment by doin’ so. If they ever get back in the saddle, they would have a reason to make a serious stab at it.

But at that point they would have to fudge it up with tripe and baloney about supposedly benefittin’ "the middle class" the same way Master Dubya did in 2000. So probably our gratification must be put on hold indefinitely. ¡Qué lástima!

Happy days.

___
[0] There are other un-Yankee linguistic activities that ought to be deposed and cross-examined, like ‘fisc’.


[1] The sweet puppies of Endarkenment dearly love that JSN phrase, so Neocomradess I. Twist should make sure never to use it when speakin’ of operations by the Jingo’s class enemy.

If I may wander over to the better side of the barricades for a moment, Dr. Bones, I continue to think that our own best bet is to try to get sweetpuppiedom to reflect how they will be feelin’ themselves after they get a stiff dose of JUST SAY NO from UnitedHealth or WellPoint or Ætna. BFZKB.