15 Nov 2013

Chris Koresko Wins the Internet on ObamaCare/Katrina Comparison

David R. Henderson, Health Legislation, Matt Yglesias 8 Comments

David R. Henderson, like me, was surprised to see Matt Yglesias suggest that the failure of ObamaCare would result in zero deaths. (In contrast, Yglesias argued, President Bush’s failure under Katrina did result in deaths.) But look at Chris Koresko’s take on the ObamaCare/Katrina analogy:

Actually the whole Bush/Katrina Obama/ACA comparison looks pretty shaky.

If Bush had lobbied hard for the first year of his presidency to bring a major hurricane to Lousiana, argued that there were 50 thousand Louisianans who didn’t have street-sweeping services and needed strong wind to blow their debris out to sea, promised that “If you like your house you can keep your house. Period.” and that the storm would stimulate the economy, and spent an enormous amount of tax money to get ready for it, only to have New Orleans flood, and then claimed that, “What I said was, if you like your house you can keep it, if it’s not substandard, or subsided.”, then it’d be a pretty fair comparison.

8 Responses to “Chris Koresko Wins the Internet on ObamaCare/Katrina Comparison”

  1. Joseph Fetz says:

    Hmm? So you’re saying that I would benefit more if I bought a house in Louisiana right around the end of the bust?

    Damn, I’m horrible at investing …

    • Joseph Fetz says:

      Just to clarify, I was directing that comment on Yglesias’s comment, not yours.

  2. Scott Lazarowitz says:

    Well, central planning certainly results in many more deaths than otherwise would be the case.

    With Katrina, the FEMA neanderthals coercively prevented people from doing what they themselves knew would be best for them at certain given moments under specific circumstances. And FEMA prevented doctors from treating people, they prevented the Coast Guard from delivering fuel, etc.

    With the central planner-created housing bubble/crash, how many homeowners were so troubled financially that they committed suicide? When the Fed-caused Great Depression occurred, there were certainly many suicides back then, thanks to central planners.

    And central planners have been disarming people across America with so-called gun control. How many deaths have been caused by that? How many deaths could have been prevented had innocent victims been able to defend themselves had they not been disarmed by central planning gun-grabbing fascists? Could an armed teacher at Sandy Hook have saved most of the dead children from being killed had their local government planners not declared the school a compulsory “gun-free zone” by law?

    Of course, it is the “defense” and military central planners who came up with the post-9/11 wars which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands that wouldn’t have occurred if not for these central planners.

    “Death” is the typical central planner’s middle name, you see.

    And regarding ObamaCare, of course there will be many people dying because their insurance policies are cancelled, and the cancers and other illnesses which will be diagnosed over the next few years will not be covered. And, thanks to central planning-caused skyrocketing costs of medical care, many people cannot afford the treatments that they would otherwise afford had central planners not required licensing and regulations of doctors, hospitals, and other regulations and taxes imposed on medical equipment, and of course don’t forget the patent laws which restrict competition and also raise prices on many things as well.

    It is doubtful that Yglesias would consider any of those points, as most people don’t like to question the wisdom of central planners.

    • Andrew_FL says:

      Yglesias doesn’t claim the government got in the way during Katrina, he claims it didn’t get in the way *enough*.

      Of course, if he *did* want to claim that FEMA got in the way, it still wouldn’t make sense to blame a President just doing his job of enforcing and staying within the existing law in that regard. It would make sense to blame the President that created FEMA in the first place. Now which one was that again? Oh yeah, it was Jimmy Carter.

  3. Cody S says:

    We are only allowed to judge the President on his intentions.

    And, we are told, we are not allowed to judge his intentions from his results.

    Just because his administration defecates its bed every night, doesn’t mean he’s an awful president.

    He likes poor people, and abortion, and stuff.

    Racists.

  4. Ken B says:

    Outstanding!

  5. Bob Roddis says:

    Since Dubya was “right wing” and we’re “right wing” and “right wingers” deny Global Warming and hate poor blacks living in New Orleans, libertarian anarchists were the cause of Katrina.

    I need to stop reading so much Salon.com.

  6. @ZeevKidron says:

    Actually the more logical comparison is between Iraq and Obamacare.

    The time frame is years in both cases, rolling disaster in both cases, it will suck all the air and other urgent issues will not be handled in both cases.

    Only differences are this is going to hit 1 in 2 families and Iraq hit a few thousand families who lost a loved one or have him missing limbs. And Iraq happened so far away while this will happen in everybody’s pocket book.

    And if I had to guess right now I’d say O’care will end much like Obama himself ended Iraq: wild retreat with no pomp and ceremony. Last one out close the gate behind us and leave the mess and toxic disaster for others to cleanup.

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