Send In The Clowns

The U.S. government's main disaster-response agency apologized on Friday for having its employees pose as reporters in a hastily called news conference on California's wildfires that no news organizations attended.---Reuters, October 26

It really, really, really doesn't get any better than this. Among the questions posed by the "reporters" for FEMA deputy administrator Harvey Johnson was this beauty: "Are you happy with FEMA's response so far?" Well, Harvey, what say you? "[I am] very happy with FEMA's response so far."

Well, there's a shock. What is not shocking---not one iota---is the phoniness that permeates Beltway policymaking writ large, a condition far more threatening than the pseudo questions thrown at mindless bureaucrats by pseudo reporters.

Consider the ongoing debate over expansion of SCHIP. The current proposal is for extension of the program to families with incomes well over $60,000; that is, to the phony poor. There is the ongoing eligibility of SCHIP for adults, that is, phony children. There are the preposterous projections of tax revenues to be generated by the increase in tobacco taxation proposed as a vehicle with which to fund SCHIP expansion; in a phrase, phony revenues. There is the five-year projection of SCHIP budget costs, in which the projection for fiscal year 2012 is a number two-thirds lower than current spending, inserted just for purposes of making the five-years spending projection more palatable; in a phrase, phony budgeting.

And let us not forget the long-term effects of government health-care compassion, as certain as the sunrise: a degradation of quality and access, as budget pressures yield powerful incentives for rationing, underinvestment in new technologies, and the other perversities familiar in all single-payer systems. In a phrase: phony health care.

So: We have phony phoniness at FEMA, which will have no adverse effects at all, and real phoniness in health-care policy formulation, which will yield enormous costs and increased human suffering over time. Which type has drawn the attention of the Beltway? The question answers itself.

[Cross-posted from www.medicalprogresstoday.com/blog/]