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I once heard a comment from a (George W Bush) White House staffer who said something to the effect of: 'there is no point trying to save money while we are in p
by nickff 10y ago
I once heard a comment from a (George W Bush) White House staffer who said something to the effect of: 'there is no point trying to save money while we are in power, because the democrats will just come in and spend it; we should just spend it on our favorite programs.' This is somewhat aligned with Bruce Buena de Mesquita's theories on how politicians act to retain power.
I think that the Bush administration's largest impact on the budget was definitely Medicare Part D, which is not as obvious as the war in Iraq, but is much more expensive (>> $100 billion/year), and will probably last much longer (10 years so far).
- refurb 10y agoMedicare Part D is actually an example of a good social program, even for those on the right side of the spectrum. The only thing the gov't does is define the parameters of the benfits and then has private insurers bid on providing benefits. It's come in well under budget projections and seniors are generally happy with how they can shop around for the right plan for them. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Is it a pretty successful social program? I'd say so.
- Retric 10y agoPart D costs twice as much as it would if run like Medicare. So, no it's a boondoggle worse than the Big Dig which had some difficult problems to solve beyond making campaign donors richer.
- twoodfin 10y agoThat's fair, but something like Medicare Part D was essentially inevitable. Even if you think a better-structured program could provide more value / $, you're still talking thousands per senior per year for those drugs.