Not every post about anything having to do with the government is a call for the government to be disbanded tomorrow. Sometimes a post about the problems with being a government contractor is just a post about the problems with being a government contractor.
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Did Kevin Drum write anything remarkably close to characterizing your post as one that called "for the government to be disbanded tomorrow?" Kevin Drum wrote: "But too often libertarians and conservatives watch one of their own deliberately trash a government program and then use that as a case study of why "government" doesn't work." That, to me, seems like a pretty reasonable point to make.
That, to me, seems like a pretty reasonable point to make.
Drum is arguing with a straw man. The straw man insists "Government doesn't work! So there! Thpppt!!".
Drum's command economy wishful thinking can beat a straw man. It doesn't stand up so well against real arguments.
"we're lucky Clinton did as much as he did. If he hadn't, we never would have gotten anything."
--K. Drum
Yes, of course! The Government is the Source of all that is Good!~ G-d knows, if it weren't for Government, we'd have Nothing.
No wonder that proto-Marxist hack writes a column called 'Political Animal'--he, and his ilk need to be shown to the Pound.
No wonder that proto-Marxist hack writes a column called 'Political Animal'--he, and his ilk need to be shown to the Pound.
That won't work. One of 'his ilk' was already shown to the pound. He promptly speculated on it and got even filthier richer.
Sometimes a post about the problems with being a government contractor is just a post about the problems with being a government contractor.
Yeah, but that's exactly what K-Drum is saying. He's saying this isn't "a problem with being a government contractor". It's "a problem with the stupidity of the Bush Administration in handling long-term funding of NIH".
That said, I agree that it would in fact be better for government to do less "let's double program x!" and more "let's plan for a gradual and sustainable increase in funding for program x over 10 years, locked into law so the investment can't be wastefully gutted 3 years from now for political reasons!" But I still think the main problem here is low prioritization of science research by the Bush administration. It's really hard to argue that NIH is some wasteful, useless pork-barrel government program.
Well, for other people, but clearly not for you.
You know Freud said that to dodge a question about his own theories being used against him.