Flashback: Ezra Klein Admits Deceptive Strategy of ObamaCare




Hat tip: Jim Geraghty

And here's a fantastic video of Ezra Klein -- who's been alternatingly brutal and gentle in his assessment of the administration's rollout of Obamacare -- in his pre-Washington Post days, back in 2008, laying out why Obama had to be dishonest about people keeping their plans. The short version is that people's attachment to their current plan, and wariness of sweeping changes, meant that they resisted past Democratic efforts to give greater government control over to the health-care system. So any Democratic program had to assure people that they could keep their plan, even if the ultimate aim was, as he prefers, "sign the insurance companies out of existence with my pen. It would be sweet. "

"At some point, you have to win," he summarizes.

Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein, speaking at the NetRoots Nation conference in July 2008. Klein provided some insightful information regarding the back-story for the Democrats healthcare reform strategy.