news. i think an activist government is responsible for helping out america s seniors. when you think about medicare, social security, nobody says oh, that s evidence that you have got your hand out. no, that s a government program that helps to protect vulnerable people in society. without any proof, because it s purely speculation. you say that all the trillions of stimulus money has worked and thought economy is on the right track. okay. i mean, but, again, it s speculation. you don t know that we might not have spent a nickel and been in the same position we are now. mary katharine, you say? well, i think the issue is not one of big government or no government, which is that s how liberals often try to frame it. when, in fact, what can happen is that when you have an activist government who is doing too many things, they become corrupt. wasteful. pretty bad at helping people. it doesn t allow for innovation or new ideas frequently because the government is a pretty clumsy ins
news. i think an activist government is responsible for helping out america s seniors. when you think about medicare, social security, nobody says oh, that s evidence that you have got your hand out. no, that s a government program that helps to protect vulnerable people in society. without any proof, because it s purely speculation. you say that all the trillions of stimulus money has worked and thought economy is on the right track. okay. i mean, but, again, it s speculation. you don t know that we might not have spent a nickel and been in the same position we are now. mary katharine, you say? well, i think the issue is not one of big government or no government, which is that s how liberals often try to frame it. when, in fact, what can happen is that when you have an activist government who is doing too many things, they become corrupt. wasteful. pretty bad at helping people. it doesn t allow for innovation or new ideas frequently because the government is a pretty clumsy ins
issues secondary. and i think that s a prescription for that kind of tea party, michele bachmann/sarah palin crowd to start roaring again. i ll be fascinated to see the reaction. i think that s an interesting point about the rise of tea party economics. the total hostility, any notion, any concept of a welfare state f of the problem that was outline, basically the problem, we always hear about the demographic problem. the majority, nonwhites and young people and single women, if you look at this group and its basic attitude toward government it favors a more activist government. it favors the safety net. if the republican party wants to appeal to this rising coalition, anything it does will automatically alienate its current coalition. do you see any way to merge those two?
president obama and that didn t work. and so now, it looks like we re going to have the spending changes and now we have got to get real. yeah, i think the white house took a calculated, but very significant risk when they made that over the top case. i mean, whatever we see, it s not likely to resemble thinking that the president described he when he did that appearance in front of the first responders where he suggests, yeah, basically hinting that people s lives were going to be in danger across the country. it was so 0 over the top that i think that reporters sitting watching the president s performance had to say really, that s what we are atalking about and started them asking questions, and the real risk if we don t see them or see them in a more graduated way which is more likely the president was going to look like he was crying wolf which is a prospect the new york times even raised in an article yesterday. so i think it s a real risk for the white house and threatens the b
things is in the direction of activist government. that s what you said at the top. you re absolutely right. and this is part of it. and in that sense even rick smith i mean excuse me, even rick scott had to accept reality, as he said. but there s more to it than that. first of all, there s a lot of money involved. billions of dollars. for the state treasury over the next two years. that s number one. number two, don t forget that rick scott was a hospital executive before he got into politics. and hospitals and health care providers in florida want the increased medicaid involvement because they want the money from payments from the government as opposed to handing out free care in some cases or charging their paying customers more. so it s something the hospitals got behind. it would be nice to say that rick scott had a sudden attack of communitarian compassion, but that s not what this is about. most important it s his own political future.