Bait-and-switch liberalism

Bill Voegeli seems to have an insider’s understanding of the dynamic forces driving American liberalism, as in his essential book Never Enough: America’s Limitless Welfare State. He understands it with a scholar’s detachment and a friend’s solicitude. It’s a rare combination. I can’t recommend the book highly enough.

Bill comes late to the case of Obamacare in his current NR cover story “Bait-and-switch liberalism,” but it is a valuable contribution to a problem with which we will be contending for the foreseeable future (as is Never Enough).

Bill’s article arrives online simultaneously with the Obama administration’s latest pronouncements pushing back the deadline for individual and small group policies to comply with Obamacare’s requirements. The New York Times’s Robert Pear does a workmanlike job of covering the story here, for readers who get their news from the New York Times.

Pear covers a lot of ground in his story. He even quotes a bit from the administration fact sheet on the new regulations, although he overlooks this quotable quote: “These provisions…provide flexibility to states and provide consumers with choices so they can decide what is best for themselves and their families.” It could be black humor, or it could be a bureaucrat with a secret message for close readers. It’s too bad Pear didn’t see fit to include it in his story.

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