Obese Legislation

On health care, neither President Obama nor Ezra Klein understand why they cannot convince many Americans that the health care reforms they favor are certain to bring about a better system.

One reason is the approach chosen by Pres. Obama and the Democratic Congress: rather than selling voters on individual reforms that would easily pass on their own — end recision this week, do something else popular next week — the political class has decided that the best approach is “comprehensive” health care legislation that tries to reform the whole system in one iconic effort. Voters are right to mistrust that kind of legislation. It is bound to be rife with special interest giveaways, the folks voting on it won’t even have read it all, and the consequences will inevitably include all sorts of unintended consequences that weren’t even conceived at the time of its passage, because who can foresee all the consequences of a multi-pronged attempt to rejigger the whole American health care system all at once?