I'll Start Paying the Cost of the Print Edition to the FT If It Will Can Chris Caldwell...
Just saying. I wouldn't want the print edition--the FT could keep the money--I just would be willing to pay for it if they would remove the value-subtracting Chris Caldwell from their roster:
Christopher Caldwell: Profligacy and the primaries: Most Americans like Barack Obama personally, but support for his agenda has levelled off well below a majority. Mr Obama divides American voters because he has thrown a major decision into their laps. At a time of fiscal retrenchment in all western countries, the US two months ago committed itself to digging a big new fiscal hole. Mr Obama’s unpopular healthcare plan meant to extend services and contain costs. In course of negotiations, the bill wound up doing the former but not the latter. His promise not to raise taxes on the middle class looks implausible, even irresponsible. So in November’s midterm elections Americans must decide whether they are going to reject Mr Obama’s style of government (presumably by electing Republicans) or pay for it (presumably by electing Democrats)....
The victory of Rand Paul in Tuesday’s Republican senatorial primary in Kentucky – with the strong support of the constitution-obsessed, small-government Tea Party movement – shows that Republicans are ready to offer the public a drastic reduction in the size of government. They offered this before, of course, in 1994, but ran aground on their own corruption and the public’s shallow understanding of what cutting government actually meant...
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports:
Rand Paul: Cut Spending But Not Medicare Doctor Payments: Tea party favorite Rand Paul has rocketed to the lead ahead of Tuesday’s Republican Senate primary here on a resolute pledge to balance the federal budget.... But on Thursday evening, the ophthalmologist from Bowling Green said there was one thing he would not cut: Medicare physician payments.... Paul... wants to end cuts to physician payments under a program now in place called the sustained growth rate, or SGR. “Physicians should be allowed to make a comfortable living,” he told a gathering.... [O]n Medicare, cuts will hurt doctors, but “patients will pay a price, too,” he said in an interview, predicting physician shortages if they continue.
Seems to me that Rand Paul continues to have that same shallow understanding of what cutting government actually means.
Why oh why can't we have a better press corps?
