Friday, April 29, 2005
ANOTHER ONE THAT GOT AWAY:
It was a Hobson's choice to vote for Our Noble Lame Duck to keep The Ketchup Consort out of the White House. That doesn't mean I can't denounce the winner for wimping out now that the election is over. Time and again his administration fails to reach far enough, and thus winds up in pitched battles over muddled minor movements in the right direction instead of sweeping changes. If this is such a "practical" strategy, why hasn't it worked? Not only are we not debating junking the whole Socialist Security Scam, but we are arguing fine points about symbolic "reforms" that will likely wind up including tax increases. How frustrating, and all due to a failure of nerve. This is not how a labor boss would negotiate. We should ask not just for more than we expect, but for more than we even want, then let the other side compromise on that.
Here's another example of a glorious missed opportunity. Restrictions on the right of consumer bankruptcies were passed, to the joy of bankers and hospitals who dream of foreclosures, and the wails of liberals complaining about the high cost of un-socialized medicine driving people over the brink. We could have gotten much more. Instead of just seeking minor limitations on individuals filing for debt relief, we should have taken a page from history and called for the Mongol plan for such cheaters:
It was a Hobson's choice to vote for Our Noble Lame Duck to keep The Ketchup Consort out of the White House. That doesn't mean I can't denounce the winner for wimping out now that the election is over. Time and again his administration fails to reach far enough, and thus winds up in pitched battles over muddled minor movements in the right direction instead of sweeping changes. If this is such a "practical" strategy, why hasn't it worked? Not only are we not debating junking the whole Socialist Security Scam, but we are arguing fine points about symbolic "reforms" that will likely wind up including tax increases. How frustrating, and all due to a failure of nerve. This is not how a labor boss would negotiate. We should ask not just for more than we expect, but for more than we even want, then let the other side compromise on that.
Here's another example of a glorious missed opportunity. Restrictions on the right of consumer bankruptcies were passed, to the joy of bankers and hospitals who dream of foreclosures, and the wails of liberals complaining about the high cost of un-socialized medicine driving people over the brink. We could have gotten much more. Instead of just seeking minor limitations on individuals filing for debt relief, we should have taken a page from history and called for the Mongol plan for such cheaters:
Genghis Khan (1162-1227) ... rose to become the most successful conqueror in history. ... His laws prescribed the death penalty for merchants who allowed themselves to go bankrupt for a third time.Again, the administration should have asked for even more than this. Perhaps a death penalty for mere second bankruptcies, with loss of a hand for the first one? Naturally, this should apply not to noble merchants, but just to those carelessly over-charging consumers out there. If they had asked for this, how much more could they have pried from those cowardly appeasing Democrats in Congress than the trivial bill that passed? At the very least, we should have been able to put bad debtors in the stocks and throw organic fruit at them. I can see this as a new participatory reality show....
