Lies, damned lies and Beltway lies

“The first thing a man will do for his ideals is lie”   Joseph Schumpeter

Now that the L word has been uttered in polite company, we should think about it some.  What constitutes a lie in Washington?   Out in the Heartland, a dictionary definition is sufficient: false information deliberately conveyed for the purpose of deception.  The Beltway standard is more flexible.  It is not a lie if we are being deceived for our own good. 

In Washington, most lies are told, ostensibly, for our own good.  Left to our own devices, we might not grasp the nuances and thus come to the wrong conclusion.  The critical need to go to war, pass a stimulus package or reinvent the health insurance system cannot always be achieved by a rational analysis of the facts.   The ‘cause’ simply cannot be left at the mercy of the truth.

Let's examine a single sentence from the President's speech to the joint session of Congress.  Unlike other statements that are somewhat debatable, this one is patently false.  He said "30 million people cannot get health insurance."  There is no evidence that 30 million people are seeking health insurance, much less that it is unavailable to them.  The current mix of uninsured Americans includes several million who are currently eligible for Medicaid, but have not applied for it.  These individuals are not seeking coverage, nor is it unavailable to them.

In addition, there are an even greater number of financially capable, yet voluntarily uninsured people.  This choice may confound politicians, but it is a choice nonetheless.  Some young and healthy people choose to spend money on graduate school, new cars or investments in their own entrepreneurial enterprises rather than health care.  Some prefer to salt it away in their retirement accounts or use it to subsidize the difficult living situations of less fortunate family members.  The President and other advocates of this reform package may not understand or approve of these choices and they are free to say exactly that.  But once again, it is inaccurate to say these individuals cannot obtain health insurance.  You can parse the numbers a bit but that statement is untrue for about two-thirds of that 30 million.

President Obama continues to suggest that he can dramatically expand the pool of insured persons at a  fraction of the cost that private consumers pay for coverage (while in some cases expanding benefits, i. e. mandating colonoscopies and mammograms as part of the existing coverage) without rationing care.  That conclusion is almost certainly untrue.  It begs for a  more detailed discussion than it is getting.

Joseph Schumpeter could have said the last thing a man will do for his ideals is lie.  But he didn’t.