Every big idea that works is marked by simplicity, by clarity. Your can immediately understand it when you hear and see it, and you can explain it to people.
Social Security: Retired people get a public pension to help them through old age. Medicare: People over 65 can receive taxpayer funded health care. Welfare: if you have no money and cannot support yourself, taxpayers will help you get back on your feet.
These things are clear. I can understand them. You understand them. President Obama's heath care plan is not clear, and I mean that not only in the sense of "he hasn't told us his plan". I mean in terms of the voodoo phrases, this gobbledygook, this secret language of government that no one understands - "single payer", "public option", "insurance marketplace exchange". No one understands what this stuff means, nobody normal.
And when normal people don't know what the words mean, they don't say to themselves, "I may not understand, but my trusty government surely does, and will treat me and mine with respect". They think, "I can't understand what these people are talking about. They must be trying to get one past me. So I'll vote no." From Peggy Noonan, WSJ 8/22/09
O.D.O.o.O.D.B.
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