My must read of the day is "A Catastrophe Like No Other," by Peggy Noonan, in the Wall Street Journal:
Put aside the numbers for a moment, and the daily argument.
"Seven point one million people have signed up!"
"But six million people lost their coverage and were forced onto the exchanges! That's no triumph, it's a manipulation. And how many of the 7.1 million have paid?"
"We can't say, but 7.1 million is a big number and redeems the program."
"Is it a real number?"
"Your lack of trust betrays a dark and conspiratorial right-wing mindset."
As I say, put aside the argument, step back and view the thing at a distance. Support it or not, you cannot look at Obamacare and call it anything but a huge, historic mess. It is also utterly unique in the annals of American lawmaking and government administration. […]
What the bill declared it would do—insure tens of millions of uninsured Americans—it has not done. There are still tens of millions uninsured Americans. On the other hand, it has terrorized millions who did have insurance and lost it, or who still have insurance and may lose it.
This is a mess of a policy, no matter how people try to spin it.
The best exercise to determine that is by doing exactly what Noonan did above: Look at the defensive argument. It lacks substance at every turn. It boils down to name-calling and focuses on a number that, without additional context, is largely unsubstantiated.
There are many reasonable unanswered questions about the progress and status of this program, but if you ask any of them, you’re made out to be an irrational right-winger. Supporters use these puerile tactics because there is no defense against many of these questions—the fact that supporters get away with claiming "how many have paid" is a preposterous question never ceases to amaze me. That may be the most rudimentary question, and any competent business or project leader should have that data because it’s important information.
What makes all of this so frustrating is, as Noonan writes, "The leaders of our government have not felt, throughout the process, that they had any responsibility to be honest and forthcoming about the major aspects of the program, from its exact nature to its exact cost," and that’s probably because they just don’t care. For many Democrats this law is a symbol of "progress"so long as it exists and they can tout it as that, the details are an afterthought.