An Appeal to the Good People of Arkansas: Better Representatives, Please
Was it Mark Twain who said that America had no native criminal class except for Congress?
Matthew Yglesias watches the Democratic Party's "Blue Dog" caucus in the House, led by Mike Ross (D-AR):
Matthew Yglesias » Contradictory Objections from the Blue Dogs: hey’re concerned that the bill (a) costs too much overall and (b) will increase the deficit. And their proposed solutions to this are to (a) increase the cost of the bill by neutering the public plan and (b) decrease the quantity of revenue by fiddling with the employer mandate. Under the circumstances, it’s no wonder that Ross didn’t want to go into detail with CNN about how he’d propose changing the bill...
I want to appeal to the people of Arkansas to retire Mr. Ross as soon as possible. Deficit hawks--fine. Worriers about rural regions getting their fare share--fine. Worries about government overexpansion--fine. But elect a representative who can combine these worries in a coherent and constructive way, not in a way that is criminally stupid and corrupt, please.
