The Left's Reality Problem | Restoring Liberty

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The deceptions around Obamacare are central—both to the law and to the left’s advocacy generally. So much of liberal policy is based on Affordable Care Act-style thinking, which involves hiding and never acknowledging the costs of a given policy; giving legislation a warm and fuzzy name on the assumption that its results will live up to that appellation; and moralistic attacks on people who resist as fools and ogres.

Every side in a political argument tends to gild the lily, but the acknowledgment of any downside is particularly devastating to liberal presumptions. Liberals are inherently activists on domestic policy, and to make the strongest possible case for action, you need certainty not nuance, cost-free benefits, not painful trade-offs, blissful promises not unintended consequences.

Consider the minimum wage. Rarely do liberals truly grapple with the possibility—supported by some, but not all research—that it suppresses employment. If they did, they would be more cautious about advocating a higher minimum wage in a soft job market and less scornful of opponents.

When Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said the other day that extended unemployment benefits could keep people from searching for a job, he was denounced, literally, as a Scrooge. It doesn’t matter that there is plenty of evidence—some of it once mustered by Alan Krueger, the former head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers—on Paul’s side. He is presumed guilty of a moral failing.