Dean Baker Does Not Believe That Philosophy Divides Democrats And GOP On Policies

Baker is critical of an article that describes the different approaches that Democrats and Republicans have about how to contain the growth in healthcare costs.  The ACA approach favored by Democrats uses the Independent Payments Advisory Board to review and recommend Medicare payments.  This approach takes advantage of the market power that Medicare has a the largest payment source to healthcare providers.  The GOP approach is to have insurance providers control payments to healthcare suppliers.  This is not a philosophical difference between Democrats and Republicans.  The GOP plan will provide more money to suppliers because individual insurance companies do not have the market power of Medicare.  They are doing this to benefit their benefactors in the healthcare provider industry. Costs will continue to rise under the Ryan plan supported by the GOP, but their plan calls for government to issue vouchers to seniors which do not increase in value at the rate of healthcare costs.  Government will not have to pay for healthcare cost inflation.  The burden is shifted to seniors.

Bakers is right about this issue and he makes a general point that is also correct.  Politics is not philosophy.  Politicians are not philosophers either.  They are practical people who do what is in their interest.  The GOP uses the ideology of the market to explain their policies in order to claim that they are based on a higher order principle.  They claim adherence to market principles for many of their policies which were designed to please their constituents.  They ignore their devotion to market principles when it serves their constituents much of the time.  They generally oppose government efforts to prosecute monopolists,  and they favor subsidies to oligopolistic energy companies which increase their market power and reduce competition.  The bottom line is that whenever you hear a Republican defend a policy by invoking market ideology, or by an appeal to individual freedom you should look for the real reason.  Its not based on philosophy.