Lots of "conservatives"[sic] claim to worry about government spending and waste.
As an Ivory Tower ideological position I can understand it--political theory does have its place in discourse. But government isn't the land of Utopians like Karl Marx and Ayn Rand, whose quaint little theories have nothing to do with the real world; its about coalitions and pragmatic compromises.
In their efforts to oppose health care because of ivory tower theories they've pushed Obama into the hands of big pharma... cutting deals that hurt the taxpayers so that they can get a bill through congress.
This ironically enough will cost taxpayers more than if opponents of excessive government spending acknowledged that people want health care reform and that they therefore used their influence to make sure the best results and most cost effective approaches are used--which would be single payer, just as a by the by. The medicare prescription drug benefits boondoggle pushed through by Republicans that the Bush administration signed into law is one example.
A true fiscal conservative would look at something like Bush's prescription drug plan and say---"if we have to pass this bill we should do it in a way that gets taxpayers the best bang for their buck." Which would have meant allowing the government to use its purchasing power--just like Walmart does when buying soap--to negotiate better deals on those drugs.
Instead we are subsidizing private profits with taxpayer money. A coalition of fiscal conservatives could have pushed that through with the help of Democrats. But they sat on the sidelines...
They are sitting on the sidelines again and whatever bill passes through congress will be more expensive because of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment