Every Few Columns

Our Mr. Brooks likes to get himself up in-costume and pretend to be something he is not.

To advance his Big Lie of Centrism, sometimes he pretends to be a historian or a behavioral psychologist. Other times, he slips into the togs of a savvy political insider or an wise economist. Of course, he is none of these things, and within a few hours of each of his costume dramas, Mr. Brooks usually ends up being brutally and and publicly schooled by people who actually know what they are talking about.

A fairly humiliating treadmill on which to spend one's professional existence, but the hours are good and the perks are plentiful.

This week, Our Mr Brooks dressed up as a health care reform expert, combing through the Liberal and Conservative opinions available at his elbow at the Aspen Ideas Festival to build yet one more tedious "Both sides" centrist straw man with which to frighten children and the slow-witted.

This week, I don't have the stomach to pick my way guided-tour-style through Mr. Brooks' latest midden pile.  Fortunately, a lot of other people do.

Over at "Slate", Matthew Yglesias notes that, in his desperate need to not agree with Barack Obama, Mr. Brooks has gone completely around the barn and out the other side:  "David Brooks Wants To Replace Obamacare With Obamacare"

A point which was made more clearly and comprehensively by Josh Bivens at the Economic Policy Institute blog here:

David Brooks thinks that the ACA should be replaced with … lots of stuff already in the ACA

In a column about the Supreme Court’s health care decision today, David Brooks offers up a series of recommendations about how to improve the nation’s health care system that he’s positive are not already in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It’s worth quoting at length because it’s so revealing:

“Crucially, we haven’t addressed the structural perversities that are driving the health care system to bankruptcy. Obamacare or no Obamacare, American health care is still distorted by the fee-for-service system that rewards quantity over quality and creates a gigantic incentive for inefficiency and waste. Obamacare or no Obamacare, the system is still distorted by the tax exclusion for employer-provided plans that prevents transparency, hides the relationship between cost and value and encourages overspending. … Republicans tend to believe that the perverse incentives can only be corrected if we repeal Obamacare and move to a defined-benefit plan — if we get rid of the employer tax credit and give people subsidies to select their own plans within regulated markets.”

Let’s take these in turn...

Becky Sarwate at Politicus USA points out that "Even the ‘Moderate’ Conservative at the New York Times Can’t Describe the GOP Healthcare Plan":

I have a cousin who posted this as his Facebook status this morning: “Sometimes I think, ‘this time David Brooks will write something that doesn’t make me want to punch him.’ And each time, I’m wrong.” I know the feeling.

Brooks has worked as a New York Times Op-Ed columnist since 2003, and while I appreciate that he is the paper’s purported moderate conservative voice and that all media outlets should strive for true “fair and balanced” representation, I join my cousin in his frustration. I am tired of being fooled by this guy. I do not pay for a New York Times digital subscription and it’s a waste to keep allotting any of my 10 free articles per month toward the writer.

Because the reality is that there’s nothing moderate or independent about Brooks’ ideology...

While the relentless Marie Burns has a long, scalding post borne out of a simple rule that serves her well: "I Never Believe David Brooks".

Serves me very well too.

Meanwhile, jurassicpork cuts to the chase by dropping the whole Brooks and Roberts clown show into a sack and beating it with a copy of the Yellow Pages until it stops twitching.