This from Kuttner this am in the WaPo. It does seem like Obama is not taking a lead in this, but praying for reason or rain. I suppose it is not in his temperament to go too far in concluding the right is compounding the already dire conditions where the insurance industry is far more to blame for the health care chaos than anything the public option could accomplish. Interesting battle, but delusions seem to be holding sway in terms of the debate. BP

Where are the liberal protesters?

Wall Street and the abuses of corporate America crashed the economy, leaving regular people anxious and financially insecure. Yet the far right, not the reformist left, is getting the political windfall.

Something is severely off when economically stressed Americans confront members of Congress about "death panels" in the Obama health plan. The rumors, fanned by talk radio with a little help from Republicans, are false and even delusional. Yet the anger, if misdirected, is genuine.

People should be plenty angry about their jobs and their mortgages and their health insurance. With health care, however, virtually all of the fears attributed to the Obama health reform efforts more accurately describe the existing private system.

It is private insurance companies that ration care by deciding what is covered and what is not. Private plans limit which doctor and hospital you can use, define "preexisting conditions" and make insurance unaffordable for tens of millions. For many, all this can cause suffering and sometimes even death. Our one oasis of socialized medicine, Medicare, has the most choice and the least exclusion.

The misdirected citizen anger at the Obama health reform efforts is a surrogate for broader, entirely legitimate, popular economic backlash.

By Robert Kuttner
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Washington Post