It's a few days old, but I wanted to share this great post by Jim Geraghty of TKS about how we want to have everything, and make sure it costs us nothing. He reacts to complaints from seniors that the new Medicaid prescription drug plan is "too complicated"...
... the message from America’s seniors on this issue is generally, “We want Medicare to cover the cost of every prescription drug we could need or want, and we want it paid for by somebody else.†We want a program that isn’t susceptible to fraud, but doesn’t make verification of claims too complicated or bothersome. We want it simple, but we want it to be responsive to the different needs of different seniors.I can’t get too mad at seniors. As a whole, Americans want their taxes low, spending on their favorite programs to increase, and for the deficit to be reduced. In fact, on just about every major political issue, the public at large, when speaking through polls and man-on-the-street interviews, wants it both ways.
We get angry over high gas prices, but we don’t want to drill in Alaska. Or off the east coast. We don’t mind 50 states having fifty different fuel blend requirements, or local, state and federal taxes that can add up to anywhere from 33 cents (N.J.) to 62 cents (N.Y.) per gallon. We don’t want ugly oil refineries anyplace near communities, even though that’s where the demand for gasoline is.
On energy in general, we don’t like building power plants. Even clean coal pollutes too much for most of the environmental crowd. We can’t build nuclear power plants, because Jane Fonda was in a scary movie about them in the 1970s. Wind farms kill birds who fly into the blades. We can’t build a wind farm off Cape Cod because it would ruin the view of a certain environmentalist senator.
We hate sprawl and like efforts to preserve undeveloped areas and that beautiful countryside, but we find housing prices to be exorbitant, and lament the lack of nice neighborhoods with housing affordable for young families.
I applaud Porkbusters for a good effort, but by and large Americans’ views of pork barrel spending echoes their local lawmakers’ – spending on projects in the other guy’s district is pork; spending on projects in my district is a vital national priority.
There's lots more. Check it out.
Posted by dan at April 22, 2006 9:42 PM