Welfare for the Elderly

The Republicans are taking their bows for passing their new Medicare Bill and the WPost is saying this is a big sign that the Democrats need to consolidate their “message”. I think it’s a pretty good sign of a couple things for the Republicans, too.

Obviously, the GOP is pandering to senior citizens in an effort to have a landslide re-election. How they can decry government funded humanitarian efforts by the Democrats and then hold this legislation up as signifier of Republican values blows my mind. They, also, passed this bill because the Congressman demographic is notoriously skewed to the higher age groups (even without Strom Thurmond mucking up the numbers) and while they may not personally need this benefit all of their friends do. However, that kind of self-serving lawmaking is usually hidden from public view. The only real sign this bespeaks is that, Red or Blue, the values of the party are just a sham for vote and donation pandering.

I wanted to add to this topic with a personal story about discussing taxes with my family, but my memory is poor and I don’t like making things up. The summary is that all the near-retirement age family members were Bush supporters due to proposed tax changes. Even my parents are not immune to vote buying.

Posted by etrigan at November 26, 2003 7:43 AM