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| Government |
| Larry Kudlow: Blame Socialism, Not Shinseki. |
| 2014-05-26 |
| [National Review} The VA problem is not Shinseki, it's socialism. The Veterans Affairs health-care system is completely government run. It is a pure single-payer program. National Review editor Rich Lowry calls it "an island of socialism in American health care." He is right. I've been arguing this all week. So perhaps Democrats and Republicans will get together to sack VA secretary Eric Shinseki. But that won't change a thing. In fact, it's a distraction. Might not change anything, but as they say in the army "...he has lost our confidence in his ability to lead." The long waits for treatment, with excessive delays resulting in as many as 40 deaths, are a tragically predictable outcome. This is the result of bureaucratic rationing, price controls, inefficiencies, and the inevitable cover-ups. It was the late James Buchanan, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, who taught us all about bureaucratic incentives in his seminal work on public choice. So if Congress thinks it can find somebody who can tame the VA bureaucracy, it should go right ahead. But the statist VA health-care system, which in so many ways mirrors the government-run health-care problems in Britain, Europe, and Canada, must be completely changed. Relief of Shinseki aside, Kudlow knocks it out of the park. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #4 The man wearing the 'green tabs' [leadership tabs] is both accountable and responsible. Blaming subordinates or the enlisted is cowardly and despicable. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-05-26 09:30 |
| #3 The fundamental question is 'who is accountable with consequences?' No accountability. No control. No quality. You can at least court martial in the uniform services and there is no tenure except in the 18-20 time frame. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2014-05-26 09:25 |
| #2 JohnQC: I'll nominate the Departments of Agriculture and Education. Ag and Ed should be handled at the State level. The Department of Homeland Security is redundant. The F.B.I. has historically been responsible for this task. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-05-26 08:53 |
| #1 A a huge bureaucracy is a danger to a free country. It as if there are four branches of government instead of three. Government becomes unmanageable. More and more people become a government employee. Free enterprise suffers and consequently the country. A growing bureaucracy, unionization of the federal government and lobbyists have nearly destroyed the republic. I'd like see the next president begin lopping off federal agencies although I doubt there is any hope for that. Any candidates for lopping? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2014-05-26 08:45 |