Rick Perry loves the part of Obamacare Peggy Noonan hates

By Ezra Klein, Published: August 22 at 12:25 pmE-mail the writer

Well, this is amusing.

Remember Peggy Noonan’s “This is the reason many people don’t like ObamaCare”? The “this” in question was the Community First Choice program, which helps Medicaid cover at-home care for the disabled rather than shunting them into institutions.

The program is so irresistible that even Texas Gov. Rick Perry is asking if his state can be part of it. And you don’t get Obamacare haters more diehard than Perry. But for that exact reason, his office is saying the program, which is literally part of the Affordable Care Act’s statute and which would cease to exist if the entire law was repealed, “has nothing to do with Obamacare.”

To be generous to both sides, Noonan didn’t seem to understand the program she was criticizing, and she relied on other people’s reporting that turned out to be wrong, or at least confused. As for Perry, he can argue that Community First Choice program isn’t related to Obamacare’s core coverage expansion, which is really what people think of when they hear the word “Obamacare”.

But the result is the same: you’ve got Noonan saying that the Community First Choice program is the reason people hate Obamacare even though she seems to want something exactly like the CFC program to exist. You’ve got Perry asking the Obama administration for $100 million from a program created as part of Obamacare even as he swears the program isn’t Obamacare.

It’s almost as if there’s much in the law that Republicans would like if only they felt able to give the legislation a chance.