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10/7/2008
Burri: Just shut up and hand over your wallet
Dave Zweifel makes me wish I was a salesman. Or an auto mechanic, maybe.
Why? Because Zweifel, editor of the Capital Times, doesn’t mind when things cost a lot more than promised.
We all know the story: you buy something – an airline ticket, maybe – expecting it to cost X. But then, as it turns out, it costs more. Added fees, maybe, or taxes, or a bait-and-switch. Whatever. The mechanic says it’ll cost this much to fix your car, but when the time comes, the bill says it’s THIS MUCH.
Hey, there was more to fix than we thought. It took longer. That’s just how it is.
Most of us get mad about stuff like that. Not Zweifel. If it costs more, it costs more, and we should just shut up and pay.
What am I talking about? Let me explain.
During the last budget debate, Governor Doyle proposed an expansion of BadgerCare – the Medicaid-like program aimed at insuring kids and their parents.
The new program, BadgerCare Plus, would enroll about 26,000 additional people by 2009, and would be cost-neutral. Or so the Legislature was told. Under these conditions, a bipartisan majority passed BadgerCare Plus.
Fast forward to now: the Department of Health Services actually enrolled over 46,000 people right away. Now the number is over 84,000, and the program is $25 million over budget – even though they told the Legislature it wouldn’t cost a penny.
Legislative leaders are ticked. Zweifel thinks they’re ridiculous.
Members of the same political party that came up with the original $700 billion plan, in order to save Wall Street and the corporate financial giants from themselves, reacted with horror that help for poor kids and their families is costing more than budgeted.
…What's particularly galling to many Americans is that there never is any money for programs that could alleviate some of the suffering and inequity in our society…we're constantly told we don't have the money to fix things. Yet, when it comes to paying the costs of invading a foreign country or bailing out millionaire barons who have messed up playing fast and loose with other folks' bank accounts, somehow the money can be miraculously found. I should point out that a lot of conservatives agree with Zweifel on the bailout. I could also point out: we’ve got BadgerCare, BadgerCare Plus, the HIRSP program, Family Care, Senior Care, and Wisconsin continues to have one of the most generous Medicaid programs in the nation, so don’t tell me we don’t “help poor kids and their families.”
But that’s entirely beside the point. The raw amounts aren’t the problem. It’s not what the money is being spent on. It’s not whether or not we think we should spend more, or think we’re spending way too much.
The point is: we agreed to a certain amount, and now you’re telling us it’s more. And you’re telling us that it’s more because you simply decided, all on your own, to do more than the Legislature agreed to.
That, you see, is what happened to BadgerCare Plus. They enrolled more people than they said, and they did so consciously. Then they handed us a $25 million bill.
Having taken his car in for a brake adjustment, the mechanic replaced his front axle and differential, and then handed Zweifel the bill.
And Zweifel will pay it, because that’s okay with him.
Or, heck, if Zweifel had his way, we wouldn’t even see a bill. We wouldn’t have to: the mechanic would already have our wallets.
Lance Burri is a contributor to the Badger Blog Alliance and occasionally blogs at his own site as well.
COMMENTS
Yep, we care so much about the poor (read those that won't work) that they come flocking to our state--WI is a welfare magnet. The Wisconsin Way people then wonder why taxes are so high, and why people get jobs elsewhere, then return to WI when they retire. Wonder no more.
emily matthews (Tue Oct 07 11:57:35 2008)
Yeah, BadgerCare is just as bad as an Iraq War that was supposed to cost $50/60 billion but will wind up costing $3 trillion.
"Just shut up and hand over your wallet."???? Now you know how opponents of the Iraq War feel.
Northern Pike (Tue Oct 07 13:44:00 2008)
Who said the war was "supposed to cost $50/60 billion?" Can you document that?
Lance Burri (Tue Oct 07 16:36:44 2008)
Yes, I can document this. Key grafs: White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey was the exception to the rule, offering an "upper bound" estimate of $100 billion to $200 billion in a September 2002 interview with The Wall Street Journal. That figure raised eyebrows at the time, although Lindsey argued the cost was small, adding, "The successful prosecution of the war would be good for the economy.” U.S. direct spending on the war in Iraq already has surpassed the upper bound of Lindsey's upper bound, and most economists attribute billions more in indirect costs to the war effort. Even if the U.S. exits Iraq within another three years, total direct and indirect costs to U.S. taxpayers will likely by more than $400 billion, and one estimate puts the total economic impact at up to $2 trillion. Back in 2002, the White House was quick to distance itself from Lindsey's view. Mitch Daniels, director of the White House budget office, quickly called the estimate "very, very high." Lindsey himself was dismissed in a shake-up of the White House economic team later that year, and in January 2003, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the budget office had come up with "a number that's something under $50 billion." Plus, much of that $50/60 billion was supposed to financed by Iraqi oil revenues. Like you said Lance, just shut up and hand over your wallet. Or in the case of the Iraq war, add your bank account and your house.
Northern Pike (Wed Oct 08 09:48:45 2008)
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