{"id":19952,"date":"2011-05-13T04:43:25","date_gmt":"2011-05-13T10:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=19952"},"modified":"2014-12-12T14:51:34","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T20:51:34","slug":"government-by-non-sequitur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=19952","title":{"rendered":"Government By Non-Sequitur"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not sure what bugs me more about\u00a0this Doug Grow column<\/a>; the fact that he deemed a bit of screeching DFL illogic newsworthy, or that he doesn’t seem to realize that it’s screechingly illogical at all.<\/p>\n

He’s writing about the MN Senate debate over a Human Services bill which would change the way the state delivers health care to the poor, from a bureaucratic entitlement to a voucher system.<\/p>\n

Grow:<\/p>\n

Apparently, what’s good for the goose isn’t always good for the gander.<\/p>\n

That little truth came to light during Tuesday’s Senate debate over health care for the poor.<\/p>\n

Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, introduced one of the GOP’s plans for cutting Human Services costs by taking about 15,000 single adults out of MinnesotaCare and giving them vouchers so they can buy their own health insurance.<\/p>\n

Hann sang the praises of the bill: It will save the state money. It will give the poor more choices. It will improve the health care of the poor. It will get government out of health care. It’s the American way!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No sarcasm clogging Grow’s keyboard there. \u00a0Nosirree Bob! \u00a0It’s the Twin Cities Media way! \u00a0All them poor folks is too dumb to take care of themselves!<\/p>\n

But that’s not really the issue here:<\/p>\n

Then, Sen. Barb Goodwin, DFL-Columbia Heights, rose to speak. She offered a simple amendment to this GOP plan.<\/p>\n

She said her amendment would require legislators to test the plan for two years, before the poor were forced into it.<\/p>\n

“I hear what a wonderful deal this is for people,” Goodwin said. “We can determine if this plan is working as it should.”<\/p>\n

Amendment greeted with silence<\/p>\n

For a moment, you could have heard a pin drop in the Senate chambers. What? Us on this plan?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When columnists try to play mind-readers, it’s pretty my much their own minds they end up reading. \u00a0Because I know that if I’d been sitting in that Senate chamber, I’d have been quiet, myself. \u00a0But not from taking offense at someone thinking I’d dream <\/em>of being lumped in with the hoi-polloi<\/em>.<\/p>\n

No, it’d be because I’d be wondering…:<\/p>\n