Liberal 'Kill Bill' Case Is Naive, Deceptive

Ezra Klein isn’t “sure there's much in the way of productive dialogue to be had” with liberal firebrand Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake concerning her call yesterday to kill the Senate health care reform bill, but he’ll try anyway. Hamsher’s list is “misleading,” her “facts are off,” and she “obscures the affected population," Klein writes in the Washington Post in his own 10-point rebuttal. But worst, she implies that the bill is worse than the world in which we kill the bill.

However flawed the bill is, Klein continues, “in the world where we pass the bill, most everything gets somewhat better, if not good enough.” Hamsher uses deception to attempt the noble goal of a superior product, but that option just doesn’t exist now. Igor Volsky puts a finer point on the what's wrong with Hamsher’s arguments at the Wonk Room. “The choice isn’t between passing this bill or a better bill—it’s between passing this bill or nothing at all.” (More Jane Hamsher stories.)