Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Kevin Hassett speaks on economy during a White House daily news briefing at the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House June 5, 2018 in Washington, DC. Sanders held a daily briefing to answer questions from members of the White House Press Corps. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Buried in "Hilariously Stupid" White House Attack on Socialism, An Accidentally Strong Argument for Medicare for All
Amid hysterical comparisons between Sen. Bernie Sanders and Mao Zedong, the White House unwittingly makes a solid case for socialist policies
From its heavy-handed comparisons between mild-mannered democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and militant communist revolutionary Mao Zedong to its bizarre assertion that the Scandinavian economic model is a failure due to the high weekly costs of owning a pickup truck in Finland and Sweden (seriously), a White House attack on socialism was roundly mocked almost as soon as it was released on Monday, with informed critics arguing that the report reads as if it was plagiarized from a college freshman with a serious Ayn Rand obsession.
Titled "The Opportunity Costs of Socialism," the Council of Economic Advisers' (CEA) new 72-page paper purports to offer an empirical analysis of socialist policies--but what it actually does is make what analysts described as "hilariously stupid" and "intellectually embarrassing" claims accompanied by charts and footnotes that give off the appearance of scholarly diligence.
Characterizing the CEA's report as a "truly bizarre document," Vox's Dylan Matthews notes that the paper's bibliography contains "a mix of books about mass atrocities in Communist regimes, economics papers on the distortionary effects of taxation, and works by socialists, like the essay Vox published by Jacobin staff writer Meagan Day defending democratic socialism."
But a look beyond the CEA's hysterical rants against socialism's supposedly totalitarian nature reveals that the White House accidentally makes a strong case for Medicare for All, which the paper describes as the "headline American socialist proposal."
"Congratulations to Donald Trump for unintentionally making the case for Medicare for All."
--Sen. Bernie Sanders
After attempting to discredit single-payer healthcare programs--which multiple polls now show most Republican voters support--as "similar in spirit to Lenin and Mao," the CEA produced a chart showing short wait times for seniors under the current U.S. healthcare system compared to those under the Canadian and Nordic systems.
As Vox's Sarah Kliff notes, the CEA conveniently omits the fact that "America's seniors are essentially in a single-payer system": it's called Medicare.
"The Trump chart doesn't say what the White House seems to think it says," Kliff concludes. "It isn't telling us that single-payer healthcare has long wait times. If anything, it says that it is possible to build a single-payer system with short wait times--and our Medicare program has already done it."
\u201cSo, um, a new @WhiteHouseCEA report ostensibly written to argue against Medicare for All uses... the success of Medicare (!) to argue against it. https://t.co/irnkIlNzbh\u201d— Steve Goldstein (@Steve Goldstein) 1540303612
In a tweet, Sanders offered Trump his congratulations for making such a good argument in favor of Medicare for All:
\u201cCongratulations to Donald Trump for unintentionally making the case for Medicare for All. https://t.co/De09BEVq2s\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1540318418
The CEA's Medicare for All faceplant was just one of many ludicrous components of the White House's latest effort to ratchet up fear of the coming socialist menace ahead of next month's midterm elections. According to recent survey data, a growing number of American voters prefer socialism to capitalism--hardly a surprising finding, given that just five men own almost as much wealth as half the world's population and tens of millions of Americans are just one emergency away from economic peril.
In a Twitter thread, Public Citizen highlighted a couple more of the report's egregious lies:
\u201cHere\u2019s one embarrassing claim from the report: Restraining drug prices will lower life expectancy. Yes, that\u2019s right \u2013 in the country where 1 in 6 ration drugs because of price \u2013 they argue that restraining price gouging would cost lives. 5/\u201d— Public Citizen (@Public Citizen) 1540313029
\u201cThe report is dead wrong on the cost of Medicare for All. Medicare for All is MORE efficient than wasteful private insurers. We would spend the same or less on health care while providing better treatment to all. 6/\u201d— Public Citizen (@Public Citizen) 1540313029
\u201cThe report twists and turns to claim that US health care is superior. But we do worse than other rich nations on infant mortality, access to care, lifespan, overall health and quality. Private insurance makes things worse in each dimension. 7/\u201d— Public Citizen (@Public Citizen) 1540313029
But as the left-wing magazine Current Affairs pointed out on Twitter, no detailed breakdown is necessary to recognize that the CEA's paper is total bunk.
"The White House paper on socialism can be dismissed in a sentence: it defines socialism as state ownership rather than worker control, and therefore does not have anything to say about socialism," the publication noted. "Sorry that you wasted 72 pages and a bunch of hours, White House CEA."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. The final deadline for our crucial Summer Campaign fundraising drive is just days away, and we’re falling short of our must-hit goal. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
From its heavy-handed comparisons between mild-mannered democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and militant communist revolutionary Mao Zedong to its bizarre assertion that the Scandinavian economic model is a failure due to the high weekly costs of owning a pickup truck in Finland and Sweden (seriously), a White House attack on socialism was roundly mocked almost as soon as it was released on Monday, with informed critics arguing that the report reads as if it was plagiarized from a college freshman with a serious Ayn Rand obsession.
Titled "The Opportunity Costs of Socialism," the Council of Economic Advisers' (CEA) new 72-page paper purports to offer an empirical analysis of socialist policies--but what it actually does is make what analysts described as "hilariously stupid" and "intellectually embarrassing" claims accompanied by charts and footnotes that give off the appearance of scholarly diligence.
Characterizing the CEA's report as a "truly bizarre document," Vox's Dylan Matthews notes that the paper's bibliography contains "a mix of books about mass atrocities in Communist regimes, economics papers on the distortionary effects of taxation, and works by socialists, like the essay Vox published by Jacobin staff writer Meagan Day defending democratic socialism."
But a look beyond the CEA's hysterical rants against socialism's supposedly totalitarian nature reveals that the White House accidentally makes a strong case for Medicare for All, which the paper describes as the "headline American socialist proposal."
"Congratulations to Donald Trump for unintentionally making the case for Medicare for All."
--Sen. Bernie Sanders
After attempting to discredit single-payer healthcare programs--which multiple polls now show most Republican voters support--as "similar in spirit to Lenin and Mao," the CEA produced a chart showing short wait times for seniors under the current U.S. healthcare system compared to those under the Canadian and Nordic systems.
As Vox's Sarah Kliff notes, the CEA conveniently omits the fact that "America's seniors are essentially in a single-payer system": it's called Medicare.
"The Trump chart doesn't say what the White House seems to think it says," Kliff concludes. "It isn't telling us that single-payer healthcare has long wait times. If anything, it says that it is possible to build a single-payer system with short wait times--and our Medicare program has already done it."
\u201cSo, um, a new @WhiteHouseCEA report ostensibly written to argue against Medicare for All uses... the success of Medicare (!) to argue against it. https://t.co/irnkIlNzbh\u201d— Steve Goldstein (@Steve Goldstein) 1540303612
In a tweet, Sanders offered Trump his congratulations for making such a good argument in favor of Medicare for All:
\u201cCongratulations to Donald Trump for unintentionally making the case for Medicare for All. https://t.co/De09BEVq2s\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1540318418
The CEA's Medicare for All faceplant was just one of many ludicrous components of the White House's latest effort to ratchet up fear of the coming socialist menace ahead of next month's midterm elections. According to recent survey data, a growing number of American voters prefer socialism to capitalism--hardly a surprising finding, given that just five men own almost as much wealth as half the world's population and tens of millions of Americans are just one emergency away from economic peril.
In a Twitter thread, Public Citizen highlighted a couple more of the report's egregious lies:
\u201cHere\u2019s one embarrassing claim from the report: Restraining drug prices will lower life expectancy. Yes, that\u2019s right \u2013 in the country where 1 in 6 ration drugs because of price \u2013 they argue that restraining price gouging would cost lives. 5/\u201d— Public Citizen (@Public Citizen) 1540313029
\u201cThe report is dead wrong on the cost of Medicare for All. Medicare for All is MORE efficient than wasteful private insurers. We would spend the same or less on health care while providing better treatment to all. 6/\u201d— Public Citizen (@Public Citizen) 1540313029
\u201cThe report twists and turns to claim that US health care is superior. But we do worse than other rich nations on infant mortality, access to care, lifespan, overall health and quality. Private insurance makes things worse in each dimension. 7/\u201d— Public Citizen (@Public Citizen) 1540313029
But as the left-wing magazine Current Affairs pointed out on Twitter, no detailed breakdown is necessary to recognize that the CEA's paper is total bunk.
"The White House paper on socialism can be dismissed in a sentence: it defines socialism as state ownership rather than worker control, and therefore does not have anything to say about socialism," the publication noted. "Sorry that you wasted 72 pages and a bunch of hours, White House CEA."
From its heavy-handed comparisons between mild-mannered democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and militant communist revolutionary Mao Zedong to its bizarre assertion that the Scandinavian economic model is a failure due to the high weekly costs of owning a pickup truck in Finland and Sweden (seriously), a White House attack on socialism was roundly mocked almost as soon as it was released on Monday, with informed critics arguing that the report reads as if it was plagiarized from a college freshman with a serious Ayn Rand obsession.
Titled "The Opportunity Costs of Socialism," the Council of Economic Advisers' (CEA) new 72-page paper purports to offer an empirical analysis of socialist policies--but what it actually does is make what analysts described as "hilariously stupid" and "intellectually embarrassing" claims accompanied by charts and footnotes that give off the appearance of scholarly diligence.
Characterizing the CEA's report as a "truly bizarre document," Vox's Dylan Matthews notes that the paper's bibliography contains "a mix of books about mass atrocities in Communist regimes, economics papers on the distortionary effects of taxation, and works by socialists, like the essay Vox published by Jacobin staff writer Meagan Day defending democratic socialism."
But a look beyond the CEA's hysterical rants against socialism's supposedly totalitarian nature reveals that the White House accidentally makes a strong case for Medicare for All, which the paper describes as the "headline American socialist proposal."
"Congratulations to Donald Trump for unintentionally making the case for Medicare for All."
--Sen. Bernie Sanders
After attempting to discredit single-payer healthcare programs--which multiple polls now show most Republican voters support--as "similar in spirit to Lenin and Mao," the CEA produced a chart showing short wait times for seniors under the current U.S. healthcare system compared to those under the Canadian and Nordic systems.
As Vox's Sarah Kliff notes, the CEA conveniently omits the fact that "America's seniors are essentially in a single-payer system": it's called Medicare.
"The Trump chart doesn't say what the White House seems to think it says," Kliff concludes. "It isn't telling us that single-payer healthcare has long wait times. If anything, it says that it is possible to build a single-payer system with short wait times--and our Medicare program has already done it."
\u201cSo, um, a new @WhiteHouseCEA report ostensibly written to argue against Medicare for All uses... the success of Medicare (!) to argue against it. https://t.co/irnkIlNzbh\u201d— Steve Goldstein (@Steve Goldstein) 1540303612
In a tweet, Sanders offered Trump his congratulations for making such a good argument in favor of Medicare for All:
\u201cCongratulations to Donald Trump for unintentionally making the case for Medicare for All. https://t.co/De09BEVq2s\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1540318418
The CEA's Medicare for All faceplant was just one of many ludicrous components of the White House's latest effort to ratchet up fear of the coming socialist menace ahead of next month's midterm elections. According to recent survey data, a growing number of American voters prefer socialism to capitalism--hardly a surprising finding, given that just five men own almost as much wealth as half the world's population and tens of millions of Americans are just one emergency away from economic peril.
In a Twitter thread, Public Citizen highlighted a couple more of the report's egregious lies:
\u201cHere\u2019s one embarrassing claim from the report: Restraining drug prices will lower life expectancy. Yes, that\u2019s right \u2013 in the country where 1 in 6 ration drugs because of price \u2013 they argue that restraining price gouging would cost lives. 5/\u201d— Public Citizen (@Public Citizen) 1540313029
\u201cThe report is dead wrong on the cost of Medicare for All. Medicare for All is MORE efficient than wasteful private insurers. We would spend the same or less on health care while providing better treatment to all. 6/\u201d— Public Citizen (@Public Citizen) 1540313029
\u201cThe report twists and turns to claim that US health care is superior. But we do worse than other rich nations on infant mortality, access to care, lifespan, overall health and quality. Private insurance makes things worse in each dimension. 7/\u201d— Public Citizen (@Public Citizen) 1540313029
But as the left-wing magazine Current Affairs pointed out on Twitter, no detailed breakdown is necessary to recognize that the CEA's paper is total bunk.
"The White House paper on socialism can be dismissed in a sentence: it defines socialism as state ownership rather than worker control, and therefore does not have anything to say about socialism," the publication noted. "Sorry that you wasted 72 pages and a bunch of hours, White House CEA."