It would be more interesting to see a moderator ask, "Senator McCain, can you describe how your own health care plan works?"

Yeah, that would be nice. But then it means a political journalist would be asking a question about policy. When has that actually happened in the past fifty years?

Or, better yet, have the moderator ask him when, if ever, a bureaucrat has stood between him and his doctor. He has had government health insurance for 30 years. If government-provided health insurance is so bad, why doesn't he refuse it, buy his own (like he wants millions of Americans to do), and save the taxpayers money?

If they would just promise not to ask about flag pins, I'd be happy.

Then again, any ideology that can't be expressed in terms of men's jewelry is too complicated for me. If it takes more than two cufflinks to get your point across, you lost me.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen... that was Lewis Black, who will be appearing at the Comedy Shack all weekend... don't forget to tip your waitress...

I'd like to see more of this in general: correctly describing the opponent's plan before trashing it. That way, onlookers can better enjoy the argument.

The larger problem isn't that McCain can't describe Obama's health care plan, it's that the voter can't describe Obama's health care plan. If they did, it'd be harder for McCain to get away with this.

As a comback, I suggest a variation of Jared's statement - "My plan would make available to everyone the very plan that has covered John McCain for the quarter-century he's been in Washington, D.C.: it's served him well as he's battled cancer, and it will serve every American equally as well."

Obama describes McCain's plan in almost every stump speech that he delivers. He notes that McCain's $5000 tax credit sounds good, but that a typical family plan costs $12-14,000. He also mentions the tax increase effect of eliminating the tax deduction for premiums and how that over time will drive employers to eliminate coverage for their employees.

That's kind of a great idea. Of course, inevitably, each debater would then use up time arguing about the other's characterization of his plan, but it does seem like a good way to get to the substance.

Ezra Klein obviously doesn't know how to ask questions, since the one above would simply generate an overview and a stock speech. Much more specific questions are needed; for instance, someone should ask BHO or his handlers about one of their lies.

As for debates, I've left this proposal in comments at TAPPED several times, and I'm absolutely positive their contributors are aware of it:

nomoreblather.com/policy-debates

The reason no one else wants to put something like that on is because they're partisan hacks. They realize that such a debate would reveal all the flaws in their side's arguments, so what they want instead is to whine about the current situation at the same time as they support it.

P.S. Putting something like that on with web-only video and a transcript and using campaign reps rather than the candidates would probably only cost about $10k. I'm sure TAPPED could handle that, if they were interested in real debates.

P.P.S. I saw at least one Buckley debate with Kuttner, so he should know the difference between real debates and the fake kind that we're offered.

I agree with 24Ahead. Of course McCain would answer something like "his program would work by getting gubment bureaucrats in between you and your Doctor." The sad thing is no newsperson outside of Jon Steward would ever challenge him on it.

R Howard,

Freudian slip?

I see your Jon "Steward" (i.e. person guiding and taking care of an institution), and raise you "press corpse" for most every other media outlet.

I guess McCain doesn't know it because he's been on government-run healthcare for his whole life, but a "health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor" is exactly what we have now. It's just that the bureacrat works for an insurance company, not the government, and the bureaucrat has a financial incentive to *deny* you the chance to see a doctor.

I agree that McCain's statement about health care was ludicrous (sometimes I thought he must be talking off the cuff because no speech would be so inept). But my understanding of Obama's plan is that he's not planning to do away with the layers of private profit-takers in health care, so isn't going to improve the biggest problem with US health care (other than the uninsured): the enormous costs caused by private agents; and the state of private for-profit companies making life and death decisions about patients. In that sense, I'm not sure that Obama is really giving us much with his plan. It will still be private and there will still be uninsured people (just not as many).

John McCain was a prisoner of war. And a POW. And he's a maverick.

You mut leave him alone.

Ezra, , can you describe how our current health care system works?

Ezra, , can you describe how Medicare works?

Ezra, , can you describe how HSAs works?

In a torturous year of reading your blog you have consistently failed to understand any of the three. This raises the question, if McCain did answer the question how would you know if it was right? I do like the idea of stopping everything, calling them out on their mistake and holding them accountable though...

...Ezra you posted HSAs discriminate against women because they exclude women's preventative care and annual check ups. Would you care to post on what HSAs actually cover instead of your mistaken comprehension?

I won't hold my breath.

"Instead, he stands behind your insurer, tapping his foot, and warning against denying you coverage on grounds of ill health or bad luck."

Now is this the same regulator that stands behind the insurer doing exactly as you describe under small group reform that has made health insurance unaffordable in CA, NY, and MA? Those of us in the rest of the country don't want that regulator, he forced small businesses to cut jobs, drop insurance, reduce benefits, and dump families on government run healthcare plans. If your Google is broke and you need me to send you the rates for CA, NY, and MA compared to the rest of the country just ask.

That regulator above is a mean hombre, no one really wants to see him, he's not nearly as bad as the regulator Ted Kennedy created and forced on millions of us, he not only controlled the cost of the insurance but also denying care, cancelling entire plans, and generally killing people. Democrats laid out a very clear plan on how they intended to regulate our healthcare system through HMOs and America very clearly rejected them.

For my money (literally) an insurance company bureaucrat is worse than a government bureaucrat any day. I'm sure John McCain has similar experiences (being a POW and all), but there just isn't anything to compare with the structural ignorance of insurer bureaucracy; no one else has quite the power (or motive) to make me feel that desperate and broken.

DX it's odd how you deride the bureaucrat of government making while exonerating the government. Insurance companies didn't use to, and the remaining self funded plans still don't have the hassles you despise. It was government regualtion and cost control, Ted Kennedy and his damn HMOs, and Liberal small group reform that turned insurance into the mess it is. So to solve this you want to go right to the root of the problem that your complaining about.

Wow.. trolls are ganing together..

EK has of anything a solid understanding of health care, both here and various comparisons abroad. His expertise here is solid enough to go on CSPAN, debate solid conservative cred pols., and shred them embarrassingly. To say otherwise is just showing off your trollskin.

People like 24ahead just lie to get certain keywords posted in regards to obama, even though the comment is only tangentially related.

Ek's suggestion would nicely take care of the situation that 24ahead et al criticise it for. That blanket short statement in EKs suggestion would directly thereafter be corrected precisely by the moderator.

Done well it should be an embarrasing rebuke for whichever cadidate made the error. There is little doubt the McCain would come out on the bad side of this style debate.

We need more statements about what these people know, and what they plan to do. We need less of what they are, how many kids they've had, who they've married etc. None of that matters when we get the next cuban missile crisis, or 9/11.