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I really don't feel like writing this same post over and over again, but it's worth saying that Obama is simply lying here:
OBAMA: …[I] mean, if a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating that everybody buy a house. the reason they don't have a house is they don't have the money.Housing isn't like health insurance. A mandate is only a part of Clinton's larger solution, which also includes deep subsidies and limiting out of pocket costs to a percentage of income. As Paul Krugman says, "There are no excuses this time. You can’t say that it’s the work of some staffer. This is unscrupulous demagoguery from the candidate himself." To talk about homelessness, for a moment, we actually know that simply making housing "available" to those who seek it out won't solve the problem, won't heal the worst cases. That's why we've got the "Housing First" movement which purchases housing and gives it to the worst off -- a recognition that, in some case, the state has to step in and directly provide what individuals will not, on their own, seek out. It's an enormously effective policy, and quite applicable to health care. But Obama hasn't applied the insight. He doesn't have universality through the government, doesn't have universality through the mandate, and seems content to take cheap shots at those who are at least trying to figure out a path to full coverage. You know, there was a time, when Obama would begin his health care talks by saying, "step one, we cover everyone." This was a lie, and I and others attacked him for it, and he eventually changed his rhetoric to better reflect his policy. At least back then, though, he recognized the importance of covering everyone. The difference between him and Hillary, on health care, can be simply put like this: For Clinton, step one is to at least try and cover everyone. For Obama, that's not even yet a step. It may be a goal, but it's not a step.I imagine you're all as bored of this post as I am of writing it. But Obama's attack on mandates -- and thus on actual universal coverage mechanisms -- shouldn't be the sort of thing he's allowed to repeat until it seems true.
