Poisoned pills

Paul Krugman has been on fire about health recently. Here he is on the blighted medicare prescription coverage bill ("The Deadly Doughnut" -- nice. Democrats should steal that.), talking with Campus Progress, and in a NYT column called Healthcare 101.

Talking about the medicare prescription coverage plan, this New York Times article has all the grim details this worthless, quixotic, expensive boondoggle, and what a nightmare it is proving to be for seniors. Now, I've always maintained that the AARP crowd (despite the AARP's "hey, it's better than a kick in the pants!" endorsement of the medicare drug benefit plan) is probably the sharpest demographic in town. It's not easy to put one over them, especially if it's policy that concerns their welfare. They've lived through a lot. They pay attention. If Bush thinks he can placate them with this poison pill of a prescription coverage bill, he's going to be in for a big surprise.

One angle that I think should be pushed more is outlined here by Matt Yglesias -- the fact that the medicare prescription plan sucks is a feature not a bug, people. You can argue that good governance is a difficult task, but it all but becomes a statistical impossibilty when the guys in charge are ideologically motivated to make sure government programs fail.