Reading the transcript from yesterday’s Democratic debate, I am reminded of why I couldn’t ever be a Democrat. Please spare me the emails calling me a quisling toady sell-out to the gay-hating right. I already get a dozen a day. I can’t get beyond idiotic statements like the following from John Kerry: “If the drug companies win, who’s losing? It’s the seniors!” And people call George W. Bush a moron. Has it occurred to Kerry that the drugs that he wants working tax-payers to give to seniors free only exist because of the drug companies? Does he really think it’s this “zero-sum”? Of course he doesn’t. He’s just demagoguing again. Or this sad exchange, highlighted by Slate’s Will Saletan:
“Gov. Dean raised prescription costs for seniors in his state when he needed to balance the budget. He called himself a ‘balanced-budget freak,’ ” protests John Kerry. On Medicare, Kerry tries to spin Dean: “Are you going to slow the rate of growth? Because that’s a cut.”
Does Kerry really believe that all entitlement programs are sacrosanct – even those that, in a few years, will destroy the country’s fiscal balance or force a huge increase in taxation? At least Howard Dean seems to have said some sensible, brave, fiscally responsible things in the past. But that is now a huge obstacle to winning the nomination. And people wonder why we have soaring debt and deficits. Between Kerry’s entitlement defenses and Bush’s election year bribes, our choice is grim. Where are the grown-ups? (Random observation: Wesley Clark seems to be getting much better as a candidate. He’s the only one who has anything sane to say about Iraq. I disagree with him, but he presents a perfectly coherent argument, and is candid enough to admit the U.N. is not a panacea.)
The Dish 