Wednesday, November 26, 2003

Drug Bust: Liberals and conservatives have finally agreed on something -- this Medicare bill stinks. And you can add the moderate view to that consensus.

I've argued that budget deficits are not entirely a bad thing. They tend to boost the economy, which in turn adds tax revenue to the government coffers.

But this Medicare bill is ridiculous. It's a $400-billion payoff for Bush's re-election. In fact the only people who tend to like this bill are Republican partisans. For a party that used to preach small government, the GOP is becoming reckless with its overspending.

Democrats are sounding alarms that this will lead the way to privatization of Medicare. That's more of a scare tactic than a criticism. The bill only will test some aspects of privatization, and nobody should oppose testing an idea. But Democrats are so desperate now that even the AARP has endorsed the bill that they have to play the line that Bush is evil and wants to kill seniors by buying them prescription drugs.

Democrats can't be taken seriously if they cry wolf like that. If they want a solid argument, here's one: We're fighting a war, and we're pulling out of a recession. We need fiscal responsibility.