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Magician Politics

Thomas Sowell

Distracting the audience's attention is one of the ways magicians pull off some of their tricks.President Barack Obama's televised news conference on medical care shows that he issomething of a magician when it comes to politics.The big trick for the president is to convince the public that he can add tens of millions of people to his government medical care plan without raising the costs. But an analysis by theCongressional Budget Office showed that Obamacare would in fact raise the costs and increasethe deficit by billions of dollars. With both common sense and economicanalysis saying that Obama cannot expandgovernment medical care without expandingthe already runaway federal deficit, it isquite a trick to get the public to believeotherwise-- a big challenge requiring bigdistractions.One of those distractions has been to blamecurrent high costs on scapegoats whom thepresident can rein in. Talking about the highpay of the CEOs of pharmaceuticalcompanies is one of those distractions.In an industry where developing just onenew pharmaceutical drug can cost a billion dollars, whether the head of a mega-billion-dollarpharmaceutical company is paid a million dollars a year, 20 million dollars or works free of charge is not likely to raise or lower the cost of the medicine you buy by one dollar.But, if making the CEO's pay an issue can distract your attention from the impossible mathused by Barack Obama and his supporters, then that is a trick worthy of Houdini.Insurance companies are another distraction and a scapegoat because they do not insure "pre-existing conditions." Stop and think about it: If you could wait until you got sick to take outhealth insurance, why would you buy that insurance while you are well? You could avoid paying all those premiums and then-- after you got sick-- take out healthinsurance and let the premiums paid by other people pay for your medical treatment.That is not "bringing down the cost of health care." It is sticking somebody else with payingthose costs. So is taxing "the rich." So is passing on those costs to your children andgrandchildren through government deficit spending. When Obama makes the insurance companies the villains for not insuring pre-existingconditions, that gives him another distraction and enables him to be another escape artist, likeHoudini.

Page 1 of 2RealClearPolitics - Magician Politics7/28/2009http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/07/24/magician_politics_97602.html

What is the point of government-controlled medical care if it is not going to lower costs but justshuffle them around, like a shell game?The government does not have some magic wand that can "bring down the cost of health care."It can buy a smaller quantity or lower quality of medical care, as other countries withgovernment-run medical care do.It can decide not to spend as much money on the elderly as is being spent now. That can save alot of money-- if you think having a parent die earlier is a bargain.The idea of a "duty to die" has been making some headway in recent years around the fringes of the left. It is perfectly consistent with the fundamental notion of the left, that decisions should be transferred from ordinary citizens to government elites.Liberals don't have to advocate it. But, once you have bureaucrats empowered to decide whattreatments you can and cannot get, they may well decide that money spent keeping some 75- year-old grandmother alive for a couple of more years could be better spent politically by enabling ten younger people to have acupuncture or visit a shrink.Even if her children or grandchildren are willing to spend their own money to keep grandmaalive, when bureaucrats control the necessary technology or medication they may decide that itis not for sale.Those pushing for government-controlled medical care say that you can keep your doctor. But bureaucrats in Washington will decide whether what your doctor prescribes will be allowed.Talking about your doctor is another distraction from the crucial question of who will actually have the power to decide, which can be the power of life and death.

Page 2 of 2RealClearPolitics - Magician Politics7/28/2009http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/07/24/magician_politics_97602.html

July 28, 2009

A Post-Racial President?

Thomas Sowell

Many people hoped that the election of a black President of the United States would mark ourentering a "post-racial" era, when we could finally put some ugly aspects of our history behindus.That is quite understandable. But it takes two to tango. Those of us who want to see racism onits way out need to realize that others benefit greatly from crying racism. They benefitpolitically, financially, and socially.Barack Obama has been allied with suchpeople for decades. He found it expedient toappeal to a wider electorate as a post-racialcandidate, just as he has found it expedientto say a lot of other popularthings-- about campaign finance, abouttransparency in government, about notrushing legislation through Congress without having it first posted on the Internetlong enough to be studied-- all of whichturned to be the direct opposite of what heactually did after getting elected.Those who were shocked at PresidentObama's cheap shot at the Cambridge policefor being "stupid" in arresting Henry Louis Gates must have been among those who let their wishes prevail over the obvious implications of Obama's 20 years of association with theReverend Jeremiah Wright. Anyone who can believe that Obama did not understand what theracist rants of Jeremiah Wright meant can believe anything. With race-- as with campaign finance, transparency and therest-- Barack Obama knows what the public wants to hear and that is what he has said. But hispolicies as president have been the opposite of his rhetoric, with race as with other issues. As a state senator in Illinois, Obama pushed the "racial profiling" issue, so it is hardly surprising that he jumped to the conclusion that a policeman was racial profiling when in factthe cop was investigating a report received from a neighbor that someone seemed to be breaking into the house that Professor Gates was renting in Cambridge.For those who are interested in facts-- and these obviously do not include President Obama--there has been a serious study of racial profiling in a book titled "Are Cops Racist?" by HeatherMac Donald. Her analysis of the data shows how this issue has long been distorted beyondrecognition by politics.The racial profiling issue is a great vote-getter. And if it polarizes the society, that is a price thatpoliticians are willing to pay in order to get votes. Academics who run black studies

Page 1 of 2RealClearPolitics - A Post-Racial President?7/28/2009http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/07/28/a_post-racial_president_97642.html