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Originally Posted by Usually Lurkin
I think it gathers momentum that gets harder and harder to change. (this is where I absolutely agree with the nutcases like alexamenos) If you hate what the Bush administration was able to do, then you have to hate all the votes that went into creating their opportunity over the past century or so. Where as people could have been saying, "lets shrink federal power because someday some guy I don't like will do things with that power that I don't like," people instead said, "lets give the government more power cause it makes it easier for the guy I like to do things I do like"
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Props.
This is the fallacy of the liberal argument (and the neo-con argument).. which basically is, "government isn't the problem, it's that WE weren't running it at the time."
Well, how many decades of politicians are we going to believe until we realize that federal government just works best when it's limited to the letter of the Constitution? And state & local governments work best when they are at least fundamentally patterned after some of the same principles.
To minkbarn - ever wonder why nobody mentions how much it costs to cool a house in the south during the summer? Because election season is before it gets colder... I betcha a lot of us spent just as much this past summer on A/C as you will on heat.
To rabbitproof - I'm a strong believer that we need to treat health care as a product and not a right, if we're going to fix it (because I'm a market eco guy), but I agree that there needs to be a discussion because the current hybrid public/private/big insurance system is busted. What I am generally attacking is the federal spending that goes toward a lot more than helping homeless youth (how many are there, really?) and providing Medicaid for the poorest of the poor.
I'll never forget the PSA that came out in favor of the Medicaid prescription drug benefit plan a few years ago. Grandma comes on and says, "I'm not poor, but I'm not rich either. I like to be able to give my grandkids a nice birthday present." What I'm hearing is that my tax dollars are subsidizing her entitlement to spoil her grandkids. AWFUL. My grandma maybe gave me $10 for my birthday as a kid. That was all she could afford, and I'm sure glad. I learned the value of a dollar, and now I'm far better off and I give her far more for Christmas. And her 5 kids and spouses, and 10 grandkids (and 6 or 7 spouses) could all collectively support her for far less than we're being fleeced by Social Security, and with far more than the meager SS check she draws. But the Gubment intervenes, and forces us to use them as a middleman.
And on education... I think it's a big fallacy of the entitlement establishment that everyone should go to college. The reason high school largely sucks is because everyone has to go. The reason college doesn't is because not everyone can, for a variety of reasons. It's a shame that sometimes those reasons are economical, but that's the breaks. I'm a first generation college grad and my parents missed out solely because of money. There are so many scholarships and grants and all kinds of things available now (or when I was a kid) than 35 years ago when my parents were. Not a whole lot of this outside of Pell Grants and Sallie Mae loans has been aided in any way by Federal spending, and I think that's just fine. We're doing better. No need to tax the crap out of everyone to try and make us perfect.
Even today, I bet well over half the people who start college piss it away partying or just not being able to do it. Another half of those who graduate probably have minimal ROI on their investment because they majored in History or something.
I'd rather we concentrate on kids maximizing ROI relative to bachelors', associates', trade schools, whatever, based on skills & market conditions, rather than wasting time fooling themselves into thinking a four year university is right for everyone. All we're doing is encouraging 18 and 19 year olds to take on crippling loan debt that they'll be paying until they're 50. Whether they graduate or not. And that makes Sallie Mae some money!!!