Krugmancare

What better way to kick off this new blog than by arguing against this New York Times op-ed piece by Paul Krugman?

Krugman cherry-picks a handful of extreme statements, and asserts that they discredit the entire Republican position in opposition to Obamacare. Are the congressional Republicans really the extremists Krugman makes them out to be?

He defines Republican extremism on health-care issues in terms of Ronald Reagan's opposition to Medicare. But Reagan has been proven right on that issue, as he has on so many others.

Medicare is not financially sustainable in the near and long term. Like its friend Social Security, Medicare is a ponzi scheme, and the kitty will soon run out as lower birth rates and higher life expectancy continue to destroy the programs' rationale.

That viewpoint is sensible. And if you want to call it extreme, so be it.

It will be interesting to see whether Krugman's enthusiasm for majority rule in the Senate still holds up when the Democrats next find themselves in the minority in that body. Each of the two most recent presidents has spoken favorably about "up or down votes" in the Senate, but only when his party had a Senate majority.

That point of view runs counter to George Washington's view of the Senate as the place where "we pour legislation into the senatorial saucer to cool it." And, if I forget that, the next time the Republicans are in the majority (2011? 2013?), please remind me.