If the scare campaign directed at whipping up opposition to health insurance reform from seniors works, fixing Medicare will become politically impossible for a generation. “Fiscal conservatives”? Don’t make me laugh.
I’ve been wondering when someone was going to point out that the right wing, which has been screaming for years about the “entitlements crisis” and “out-of-control Medicare spending,” is now whipping up seniors to oppose health insurance reform by threatening that it would … rein in Medicare spending. The latest dishonest and hysterical Michael Steele rant seems to have inspired Pearlstein, the WaPo business columnist, to do the job.
If the scare campaign works, fixing Medicare will become politically impossible for a generation. “Fiscal conservatives”? Don’t make me laugh.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
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