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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (8659)	1/10/2006 2:40:31 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541851

The Roman's had bread and circuses, we have social programs and pork. I wouldn't be surprised if ancient Summer had something similar. Its a powerful and long lived trend that is very hard to counter. Of course we spend more on such things (certainly in absolute terms, probably as a percent of our gross production), and while we probably can't get rid of the "bread and circuses" (esp. on a permanent basis) we would benefit from at least making the "candy store" much smaller. Some look at the difficulty in closing down the candy store and keeping it closed and use that as an argument against libertarian ideas. I don't think it is a very good one (at least as a matter of logic, as a method to increase understanding, or as a method to achieve optimal public policy, it may work as a rhetorical device). If libertarian ideas get stronger this problem gets smaller. Its not a leap across a chasm. Getting part of the way is a good thing not a bad one. Tim

To: Lane3 who wrote (8659)	1/10/2006 8:04:26 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541851

"I Like It Mark Schmidt wants to reframe the "lobbying scandal." Step one: Don't call it a "lobbying scandal" That's the other side's frame. This is not a lobbying scandal. It's a betrayal-of-public-trust scandal. Lobbyists have no power, no influence, until a public servant gives them power. That's what DeLay and the K Street Project was all about. What they did was to set up a system by which lobbyists who proved their loyalty in various ways, such as taking DeLay and Ney on golf trips to Scotland, could be transformed from supplicants to full partners in government. "Betrayal-of-the-public-trust scandal" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. But the sentiment is right. Abramoff is a very sleazy guy, no question. But he only got to where he was because members of congress--people who are elected to serve the people--let them in the back door, front door, side door, and open windows. At the end of the day, this isn't about lobbyists. Lobbying is not even all that bad, intrinsically (as has been noted before, it's even a constitutionally guaranteed right). It's about congressmen abusing their position of power to get enriched by said lobbyists. It's the congressmen who need to go down. The lobbyists are just prosecution witnesses. Link via Kevin Drum. posted by David Schraub" dsadevil.blogspot.com