Welfare Vines

We seem so preocuppied with compassion as a means to an end we forget there are costs associated with them and it's extremely difficult to manage and maintain such programs. No price is too high - until the bills come in. Of course, at which point the answer is always to increase taxes.

I'm actually all for certain publicly funded programs in limited and small doses. The reality is too many programs are not sustainable over time. I think access to affordable, for example, museums are essential to educating and creating a cultural ethic among students. As for the endless other programs, that they exist and continue to operate doesn't necessarily mean they're achieving stated goals. Saying people "wouldn't give them up" as proof they work is weak to me. You give people free anything and it calcifies into their world view.

The only solution is to slowly weed people off their meds. Going cold turkey is too much of a shock to the system. Right now, all the talk of third party and cutting Obama's power in November is akin to advanced indigestion when it's too late for Pepto-Bismal. The only cure is to vomit and clear yourself out.

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About that health care thingy and all the messy math:

The CBO, an independent non-partisan agency that provides economic data to lawmakers, also said that Obama's debt projections were optimistic.
By 2020, the national debt would balloon to 20.3 trillion dollars, or 90 percent of GDP, CBO director Douglas Elmendorf said in a report Friday.

La-dee daw. I don't know how people believed reform was going to "save" money. Nor do I quite get all the optimistic recovery talk. Sure in the short term economic activity can rebound but it doesn't mean the long-term structural issues are solved. Wait 'til the boomers retire. Now that'll be interesting.