Everyone Is Paid By Someone

Megan Mcardle spitefully rejoices at poor Democratic election prospects.

Rereading our own Josh Green's excellent 2009 profile of Chuck Schumer, I'm struck again by the phenomenal miscalculations--I'm tempted to say arrogance--of the Democratic Party. They really believed that the 2008 election had given them an enormous mandate to do nearly anything they wanted. They believed that a huge stimulus bill filled with Democratic pet projects would gain them political capital, rather than cost it. They misled themselves on the effects of Obamacare--both political and economic--as the Official Asymmetrical Information Spouse points out in a new column.

Fair enough if you're an activist who doesn't care about whether Democrats lose office, as long as you get some major programs passed that are hard to undo. But Democrats seem to have genuinely believed themselves that winning the election meant that voters wanted what they wanted, at least along major dimensions. Those of us who protested that they were passing these bills against substantial political opposition were told, "Elections have consequences."

Well, it will be interesting to see if elections still have consequences when Republicans win them. I am in no way enthusiastic about having Republicans back in office; the current platform of extending the Bush tax cuts and . . . um . . . well . . . er . . . seems beyond childish to me. But I can't say I'll be sorry to see Democrats leave. It's healthy for parties who overinterpret their mandates to be badly chastened.

Yeah, there'll be consequences, just like the consequences we're suffering through now. But McArdle's lack of class is old news. This is the interesting part:

Every Man A King
Most of ObamaCare don't go into effect until 2014. So no one, except the clueless, was arguing about immediate effects. Second, why should we trust your hubby? He's paid by, among others, the Koch Brothers.

McMegan
And Matt Yglesias is paid by, among others, George Soros; and . . . well, it turns out that virtually everyone is paid by someone.

The facts he cites are empirical claims; if you think they're wrong, why don't you show us why?

Why bother? Especially since one would be arguing about a health care bill that the insurance companies wanted. And hey, everyone is paid by someone, so it doesn't matter in the slightest that oil companies are paying Reason to advocate for deregulation and against climate change, or that Merrill Lynch pays The Atlantic for access to Megan McArdle.