"It seems increasingly clear that though Medicare is on the table -- Nancy Pelosi said as much yesterday -- the privatization and voucherization plan that passed through the House is not. No major Republican presidential candidates have endorsed it -- and Newt Gingrich actually came out against it -- the Senate GOP left it out of their budget, Boehner said he's "not wedded" to it, and when Paul Ryan, the plan's creator, delivered a defense of his budget in Chicago yesterday, he spent almost no time at all explaining or defending the Medicare portion. To say he glossed over it would be an understatement. He rushed past it, like a man hastily greeting his ex on his way out of a party.
That's good news for those who dislike Ryan's plan. But it means we've wasted the last few months arguing over a plan that isn't going to happen. Worse, as of yesterday, we've actually hit the debt ceiling, meaning that we can't dither on a deal for much longer, as the countdown to an actual financial disaster has begun. So we need some sort of agreement between the two parties, and soon. But the two parties don't even seem close to that. And much more time has been spent talking about policies that everyone knows -- and knew -- won't be part of a deal than policies that will."
This reminds me of the endless running in place that occurred during all of the Committee work during heath care reform. Time, money, public interest are all wasted to some degree as policies with little chance of success are whittled into shape.
After a point, most normal people just shrug and say, "who cares?"
Can you blame them?
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