Last weekend, I wrote my quarterly column that will appear in next week's Inside Business. I discussed the economic conference I attended last month in Washington, where speaker-after-speaker lamented the fact that neither Democrats nor Republican would deal with the financial cancer on this country, which is entitlements. The Democrats did it last year and were accused of death panels and pulling the plug on grandma. The Republicans know the same would happen to them and find it politically convenient to just let the Tea Party get hysterical over lesser important issues.
But, we may have been wrong? Today, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee sacrificed himself by opening the discussion. Upfront, I do NOT like the bill he introduced today and would love to vote against it, but I do have enormous respect for him. He spoke the unspeakable, i.e., that we must cut Medicare and Medicaid. He actually said that.
No, he is not in favor of death panels or pulling the plug on grandma. Instead, he did his job. He had the courage to do his job. Maybe, just maybe . . . the debate can finally begin.
Of course, I hoped that might happen last year, when the Democrats tried . . .
