The Republican Party is on a roll right now, controlling the high ground in political debates from Washington to state capitals across the US.<\/p>\n
Some of their issues — including the outsized Federal deficit and concerns about the size of government — have gained real traction in the public zeitgeist.<\/p>\n
And there is absolutely no doubt that we need at least one political party right now that is focused on those questions.<\/p>\n
But shrinking government is a tough, complicated business and too often the GOP is throwing out full-bore nonsense instead of coherent policy ideas.<\/p>\n
A case in point is Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour’s recent claim that Medicaid recipients in his state are pulling up “at the pharmacy window in a BMW and say[ing] they can’t afford their co-payment.”<\/p>\n
Barbour’s “welfare queen” style rhetoric matches the goofy notion offered up by many conservatives that the reason people aren’t working in the current economy is that they just aren’t motivated enough.<\/p>\n
That was the argument put forward last year by the Heritage Foundation when they advocated for curtailing jobless benefits<\/a> for millions of laid-off workers.<\/p>\n “As long as you’ve got those insurance payments coming in, people become more selective about the jobs they’re willing to take,” said James Sherk, senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank. <\/span><\/p>\n “It’s not meant to be or designed to be a handout or a welfare program; it’s designed to be an insurance program.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n