I think the real key here is that conservative public intellectuals don't see the world as acting on its own. That is, for Brooks inaction or delayed action (on anything, really) results in a simple delay, whereas in reality the issue is that not doing anything is in fact action with consequences, too.

But I'd make the argument on grounds of simple urgency: If a patient has cancer and heart disease, her doctor doesn't have the luxury of treating only one or the other.

Woah. So I was planning on making an very similar analogy that gets at what's bothering me: If a patient has a slow-growing cancer as well as increasing frequency of chest pains suggestive of a likely impending heart attack, you want your doctor to focus on the heart first. Its not accurate to say that a "good" doctor would address all issues that threaten a patient at the same time. There's one that is pressing, and another that while serious, should be prioritized after fixing the first one. No question health care is important. That's a big reason why I chose it as a profession. But we've got an economy in major crisis, Treasury plans that have been criticized as half-baked, Department staffing this is woefully behind schedule, financial regulation that is in dire need of updating that should be linked to the continued bail-out of financial industry-- this is a crisis that requires more attention that its getting. Do we honestly think the Obama administration is doing everything it should to get things under control?

I get the political urgency with health care. But there's little on the table that's addressing our health care cost problem anyways, so its hard to say this its imperative to shift mind-share away from our economic crisis. This isn't a little ol' recession. The administration only has so much time in the day. Its hard to see the evidence that they are spending enough of it on the economy.

""The Big Fix" is growth"

How original. It has been thus for generations (only a few generations, mind you, only a tiny fraction of human history). The problem is that growth doesn't work anymore. There's nowhere to grow into any more for capitalism. Capitalism got its last boost by taking over the Soviet Union,s economic sphere. That hasn't lasted long. Lately, "growth" has been "created" by Ponzi schemes with funny names. The pyramids have fallen like houses of cards.

The time of the "Big Fix" is over. Enter "The Long Emergency".

Let's change the scenario. If the patient is being treated for a heart attack, with paddles and all, and an ambitious out of work oncologist rushes in with a whole chemotherapy set up and screams "she has cancer too".... That's what's going on here. No one has made the case that lack of publicly subsidized college education for all is the cause of the present economic crisis. Treatment is being proposed for every undiagnosed disease under the sun, while patient is receiving electro shock to restart heart. Not good.

And then a team of decorators and contractors rush in and say, "now would be a good time to do that kitchen renovation, while she's on the table and away from home." That has long needed to be done