Saturday, May 9, 2009

Our Pro-Taxpayer President

It was intersting to see the right wing line up behind the hedge funds, many of whom only recently purchased Chrysler debt. Would they have preferred that Obama simply open up our checkbook and pay them what the free market would not? Our new president is clearly more careful than that with precious taxpayer dollars.

The last president added the huge entitlement of prescription drug coverage, without adding a penny in revenue to pay for it. The incremental expense over the first ten years was scored to exceed $500B (before passage of the bill), then $700B+ (just after passage) and now $1T+.  One of the provisions of the bill was that the Federal Government could NOT negotiate with the drug companies for discounted pricing. Imagine that - governments all over the world negotiate the best deal, as do private companies. Only one customer - the largest in the world - is prohibited from negotiating a discount. Thank you, George W Bush and the Republican Congress.

Tell me - who was more concerned with taxpayer dollars? Whose first priority rested with all of us - the taxpayers - and who looked out for someone else? Glance at the scoreboard and you shall see.

 

 

2 comments:

Jim G. said...

We did not side with Hedge funds.

We side with the rule of law, contracts and minimal government intervention.

Conservatives=free markets

Liberals=Government management.

Baxter said...

I side with rule of law, contracts, and as much government involvement as is necessary in an economic crisis. I am in good company - GWB provided the first lifeline as he could not let the auto industry collapse on his watch.

Conservatives = Free Markets with Laissez Faire Rules

Liberals = Free Markets with Keynesian Rules

The was an excellent piece in WSJ yesterday describing the Chrysler/Hedge Fund battle that essentially repeated what I have been saying all along. I didn't link it here as it required a subscription to read the whole article.