I Didn't Wake Up Planning to Write About Samuelson

I woke up this morning planning to write about Newt Gingrich or maybe Sarah Palin. But they'll have to wait because it's Monday. And that means there's another Robert Samuelson column out in the Washington Post.

Samuelson has come to the conclusion that Obama is no more serious about trying to control costs in his health care plan than his predecessors have been:

One of the bewildering ironies of the health-care debate is that President Obama claims to be attacking the status quo when he's actually embracing it. Ever since Congress created Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, health politics has followed a simple logic: Expand benefits and talk about controlling costs. That's the status quo, and Obama faithfully adheres to it. While denouncing skyrocketing health spending, he would increase it by extending government health insurance to millions more Americans.

Just why this approach is perennially popular is no secret. Health care is viewed as a "right." Promoting it seems "moral." Cost controls suggest dreaded "rationing." So there's a powerful bias toward expansion....