23 August 2012
Romney’s First Thing is to Get Elected
David Brooks makes an interesting case in the 8/21/2012 New York Time that the first thing that needs to be addressed by a Romney/Ryan federal administration is getting the Medicare budget under control. However, the addition of Representative Paul Ryan to the Republican ticket does not mean that Romney has put that mandate first in his priorities. What it means is that his first priority is getting elected. The Ryan budget uses control of social welfare costs as a disguise for reducing taxes on the upper income stratus of American voters whose financial support is central to Romney’s strategy for convincing the electorate to vote for him in the key battleground states this November. That campaign of media persuasion will cost money and promising smaller government to individuals and corporations is the price that Romney has decided to pay.
Following this course is to walk away from demanding responsibility on the part of those who benefit most from our free-enterprise system for creating as equitable a community in America as we can afford. Relying on the market to sort out our expensive Medicare program ignores the reason that America has such an unsustainable bill for maintaining the health of its aging population—our belief that people are entitled to outlive natural limits on their wellness. What is really needed is to orient Americans to accept the consequences of the baby-boom: we all will eventually die. The Democratic way to deal with that reality is for us to share its cost, rather than to allow those who can afford to delay its result to place the burden of illness and discomfort on the rest of us.
David Brooks makes an interesting case in the 8/21/2012 New York Time that the first thing that needs to be addressed by a Romney/Ryan federal administration is getting the Medicare budget under control. However, the addition of Representative Paul Ryan to the Republican ticket does not mean that Romney has put that mandate first in his priorities. What it means is that his first priority is getting elected. The Ryan budget uses control of social welfare costs as a disguise for reducing taxes on the upper income stratus of American voters whose financial support is central to Romney’s strategy for convincing the electorate to vote for him in the key battleground states this November. That campaign of media persuasion will cost money and promising smaller government to individuals and corporations is the price that Romney has decided to pay.
Following this course is to walk away from demanding responsibility on the part of those who benefit most from our free-enterprise system for creating as equitable a community in America as we can afford. Relying on the market to sort out our expensive Medicare program ignores the reason that America has such an unsustainable bill for maintaining the health of its aging population—our belief that people are entitled to outlive natural limits on their wellness. What is really needed is to orient Americans to accept the consequences of the baby-boom: we all will eventually die. The Democratic way to deal with that reality is for us to share its cost, rather than to allow those who can afford to delay its result to place the burden of illness and discomfort on the rest of us.
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