Dionne: “finish the kitchen”
I would like to point out to E.J. Dionne that his analogy falls flat when he approvingly quotes Rep. Jay Inslee comparing health care reform legislation to a kitchen renovation:
…[Inslee] recounted all the grief he and his family went through while work on their kitchen renovation dragged on and on and on. “During that time, I had blood lust against my contractor,” Inslee said. “Six months went by, and he was still arguing with the plumber. Eight months went by, and there were still wires hanging down everywhere, and he was having trouble with the building inspector.”
Inslee looked at his colleagues and declared: “We’ve got to finish the kitchen.” His point was that Americans won’t experience any of the benefits of health-care reform until Congress puts a new system in place…
Democrats can finish the kitchen. Or they can face the wrath of voters who will wonder why the contractors they sent to Washington left all the wires hanging and the plumbing disconnected and useless.
I beg to differ. Inslee (or Dionne) can do what he wants with his kitchen. But Congress shouldn’t be messing with ours without our permission.
If a crowd of people had come into his house and torn his kitchen apart without his approval, and then reassembled it without consulting him, and he stood there all the while screaming, “No! Stop!” as they ignored him, and then the group charged him exorbitantly for the privilege (as well as bribing some of the subcontractors with his money)—now, that would be a more apt comparison.
As usual, Dionne’s unacknowledged assumptions prevent him from seeing the obvious.
Neo,
Please post your last paragraph on the Washington Post site in the comments section follwing the Dionne piece.
You successfully continued his metaphor and threw it in his face.
Strictly speaking and contra Inslee and Dionne, no work has been done to the kitchen … yet.
There are no dangling wires and useless plumbing now. The kitchen is working just fine, thank you very much.
We are only in the planning stages and it’s clear that the contractors are using the opportunity to charge exorbitant rates for elaborate features and fixtures that aren’t necessary or won’t work or will do so poorly. It’s hard to tell whether the contractors even have the barest notion of what they are doing. Mostly it appears that they don’t, but it is clear that they are desperate for the money.
Don’t sign anything and send them away. No harm has been done … yet.
Instead Dionne is like a high-pressure salesman telling us that we have spent so much time planning that we’re better off going ahead even if it’s against our judgment.
I opened the comment section to say the same thing that Bill West had already said before I got here. Let me just add my voice to his. I don’t know if anybody actually reads the comments at the Washington Post (I’ve tried sometimes — it’s painful) but just in case, this ought to be there.
Theres good news. These libs can’t let go of healthcare anymore than the guy who thinks if he stalks a woman long enough hes bound to get a date with her.
Who needs a new kitchen if all you can afford to cook is a pot of beans? 🙂
So what that the basement is taking on water. Finish the kitchen. And if the flood eventually ruins the kitchen? You hate poor people!
Democrats painted themselves into a corner. They can’t let go of this, but they can’t pass it. November is going to be very bad for them.
Their kitchen is burning down around them and they aren’t sure what to do about it.
I love how E.J. thinks the filibuster is so unfair. Wasn’t unfair when Dems were in the minority, was it E.J.?
Most people hope that the Dems can’t stand the heat and they are going to get out of the kitchen regardless of what Obama says about finishing the job.
To extend the kitchen metaphor, Dionne isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, is he?
Gentleman…you have COOKED the kitchen metphor!
Most people hope that the Dems can’t stand the heat and they are going to get out of the kitchen
Rename it Hell’s Kitchen in their honor.
E.J. has completely lost the few marbles he may have had left. He needs a room at the long batshiite crazy Paul Krugman’s house.
Your b’yotch slapping the punks on this one is a thing of beauty, NeoNeo!
I’ve seen Dionne defended as reasonable by some of the folks over at National Review, but every piece of his I’ve ever seen is anything but reasonable. As far as I’m concerned, he could post on Kos and fit right in.
To extend the metaphor: Just think how much worse the kitchen contractor problem would be if there were only one contractor: No competition. No word-of-mouth shifting business from a bad contractor to good contractors. This progressive infatuation with massive government is, well, to put it politely, pernicious.
“I’ve seen Dionne defended as reasonable by some of the folks over at National Review”
Would that be an individual named T. Coddington Van Voorhees VII? 😀
I’ve seen Dionne defended as reasonable by some of the folks over at National Review
I’ll defend Dionne as reasonable here.
Reasonable in the sense that Dionne is calm, collegial, and his appeals make a certain amount of sense, though they don’t stand up well to close inspection, especially with regard to his “unacknowledged assumptions” as AVI noted @ 4:13pm.
Insightful as always, neo!
Great news on the the televised healthcare gambit!
(Or as Tom Maguire aptly described it: Obama Announces Plan To Host Republican Surrender Ceremony.)
The House GOP has pushed back hard — harder than I dared hope.
This will give Obama and his followers some PR mileage in complaining about Republican bipartisanship, but I don’t think too many of the independents will be fooled.
In any event the TV summit was a obviously a dangerous trap and critical to avoid. The GOP response may win some minds as well.
Yes, they’ve pushed back harder that I dared hope, as well.
Now let’s hope they stick with it. They should follow our family motto: Persistence pays!
Dionne is a sap.
There are 10 people in this neighborhood and EACH has a kitchen. The contractor/Senator comes into the neighborhood with the following plan.
1) One with the cadillac kitchen complete with double ovens, granite countertops, tile floor, silent dishwasher and bay windows – this person works at GM and nothing will change.
2) One with the cadillac kitchen also but works in private industry for Intel – this person will be taxed on their benefit at 40%
3) 6 families with normal kitchens with one oven, a stove, tile, dishwasher, etc. These people range in income from $30,000 – $250,000 in income but prioritize well because they have to.
4) 1 family that has a catastophic kitchen, voted for Obama, doesn’t save for the day when maintenance might be needed on any of the appliances – and when the gas oven explodes killing her she wants to be buried in the Obama shirt.
5) 1 family who makes $75,000 and has no kitchen. Wants it free. Can’t get a free Medicaid kitchen because they not poor enough. Can’t get a Medicare kitchen because they aren’t old enough. Wants the people in situation #2 and #3 to pay for them but those darn tea parties don’t want to visit the non-kitchen family and give them a free kitchen.
Dear liberal Democrat voter in situation #5,
Be personally responsible.
Signed,
Concerned citizen with a nice kitchen.
That last paragraph is the best one I’ve read in a long time!!!
These libs can’t let go of healthcare anymore than the guy who thinks if he stalks a woman long enough he’s bound to get a date with her.
Nice analogy.
Forget the kitchen — go directly to the bathroom and flush Obamacare down the toilet. Be sure and wash your hands well afterward.
I forgot to mention.
The 9 people with the kitchens were talking to the contractors/Senators louder and louder because the Senator/Contractors weren’t listening.
They proceeded merrily on with their plans to dismantle 1/6th of the house’s to take parts and pieces to give a kitchen to the idiot who didn’t have a kitchen and wants the other 9 to pay for it.
Equality. Liberty. (French saying that never made sense)
I cannot see how removing or distorting competition can bend down price curve. This never occured in any industry. Why health care is different?
” But…but..but..Why do i have to have this cheap high gloss euro kitchen in my craftsman style bungalow? Shut up and change your house.”
Just in about Obama & Co.’s extreme makeover of our entire house, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ymxLA5oRYI
“Every day our president wakes up serious and focused and committed to pushing this stuff through.” – FLOTUS
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100209/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_michelle_obama_presidency_2
Gee, and I never got past the fact that it took him 6 months to renovate a kitchen. My contractor did it in 6 days. Hell, I could do it MYSELF in six weeks while working a full time job.
But if the congressman is willing to put up with such crappy performance, then I guess that certainly explains why I wouldn’t want him supervising the contractor.
Caracas’ El Universal, citing sources close to Havana are pointing out that there are now 65,000 Cuban Agents in Venezuela
cuban staff is helping them set up ID systems and such. (like our national id that will come)
all of this after chavez appointed a cuban as vice president.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61368W20100204
have to take it all in…
as outside has as much bearing as inside
expecially when inside is so stupid as to think that outside wont take any and every advantage
remember, cubas state organs of intrugue were designed by the KGB/GRU… and so, having them send experts, education specialists, doctors, and on and on, tends to make people think that perhaps things are being coordinated by the SVR.
think of this as a garbage disposal installed in your kitchen upside down. everything is fine and the same, except for one tiny inversion. the selling points are the same, the benifits are said to be wonderful, etc. the tiny detail you cant get others to see, is the inversion that invalidated the equivalence.
i guess Sergei Lavrov has his hands full in the coming months. though i bet that the key commentators will have to look up who he is. what with upgrading the radars in cuba, replacing its old fleet of planes with new ones (maybe a fifth generation fighter). [after all, take a look at Aeroflot and the symbols they use]
remember when its a cargo cult leadership, symbols are everyting as there is nothing else!!
so its interesting to bring up key simbolism and hear those who dont understand what they are looking at to discount it. but yet, they spend how much to get symbols seen in advertising? of course thats a complete waste as everyoen says it doesnt work on them. yet sales calles them liars. (and if you read the words of the father of modern advertising you would get creeped out completely as if he was goebels. which in a way he was, as that was the progressive goebels copied, as sanger/popenoe, and others were another progressive idea ot copy and then run to the ends before they do)
anyway… cuba as the new flight bridge will open up the pipeline to move a lot of experts, and other material people into south america.
and russias president signed in the preemtive nuclear strike doctrine.
“The president informed the members of Russia’s Security Council on Friday that he has approved two documents – the military doctrine and the Fundamentals of the state policy on nuclear deterrence until 2020”
Russian president approves new military doctrine
en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20100205/157785368.html
anyone want to realize besides me that our odds of a nuclear war by 2012 just went up by a crap load?
they are not as weak as they seem
as they also are not as stupid as they seem
our mistake in our assesments is always as we care about our people, and they dont care any more than you care about a screwdriver in a tool box or a tank in the field.
they are resources, and resources are made and created to be used up..
remember, we are now putting anti missle missles next to an area which is fully equiped with TACTICAL nuclear weapons. (not strategic).
they just increased the amount of tiny nukes in the area by a whole lot.
of course, obama and his stuff is causing us to do what the polity cant do. pay attention to more than one thing.
a long time ago i said they were going to turn on every burner in the kitchen
for if you cant stand the heat
then get out of the kitchen
I like the kitchen metaphor, especially where huxley went with it. I envision the contractor – not a guy you found yourself but one the city sent over because he’s somebody’s cousin and “won” the bid. He keeps standing around stroking his chin, pointing out the problems with your current kitchen – some legitimate. He’s got plans for your new kitchen. He’s going to save you money because hey, we’re buying in bulk, here. Plus we have a guy named Guido who’s gonna talk to the suppliers, if you catch my drift.
Here’s another: America has a Kitchen Problem. Some people only have kitchenettes. Some people only have hot plates and a microwave. They do eat, but it’s not a kitchen, hear? And some people get hurt in kitchens, or can’t fix their own kitchens. So we’re going to redo everyone’s kitchen. If you like your current kitchen, you can keep it. Well, no, not really, but you can keep the curtains, the sink, and the flatware. Wait, let me get back to you about that sink…
Neo,
Great minds think alike. James Taranto tracks your kitchen observation rather closely in today’s Best of the Web Today column:
“Except that Inslee’s kitchen was in his own house! A better analogy to ObamaCare would be if some guy down the street is unhappy because his daughter is having a lot of very bad personal problems, so to take his mind off it, he barges into your house and starts tearing apart your kitchen.”
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB10001424052748704820904575055491571318692.html
I’ll email him and tip him to your blog.
China PLA officers urge economic punch against U.S
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6183KG20100209
As i said, this is a global game… ya want a way that the elections can be canceled? china dumps bonds and cuts us completely out of trade.
think we will have elections then? even worse, given the collusion of the politics, what if those here who have had extensive visits and talks, are really doing what they are doing knowing that others on their side externally are on their side.
in the kitchen metaphor
what happens to your kitchen plans when the bank forcloses on the home while your doing it?
Now THAT was the proper analogy, NeoNeo! Thank you.
The only thing I’d add to neo’s last paragraph is the following in bold:
If a crowd of people had come into his house and torn his kitchen apart without his approval, and then reassembled it without consulting him, and he stood there all the while screaming, “No! Stop!” as they ignored him, and then the group charged him exorbitantly for the privilege (as well as bribing some of the subcontractors with his money), then put a lien on the house because the homeowner didn’t pay for the unapproved work–now, that would be a more apt comparison.
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