re: #69 brownbagj

Absolutely on all counts. I still consider myself a fiscal ‘conservative’ because my main question about any program is ‘Does it work?’. No matter how good the idealism of a program, if it doesn’t work, then I don’t support it, can’t support it.

To alabamapurpleneck’s point above, if it could be shown that welfare was actually putting a negative pressure on employment, I wouldn’t support it. However, the opposite is the case; welfare makes it easier for people to get employed, mainly by making it less likely they’ll be homeless, without phones, etc. etc. However, specific policies about eligibility in regards to welfare does mean that sometimes it’s economically more beneficial to not take a job; that shouldn’t be the case.

Or take corn ethanol; a supposedly good aim, green energy, but a terrible, horrendously stupid way to go about it. It was when Obama supported corn ethanol that I realized he either didn’t really understand AGW or was not taking it as seriously as he really should.

I don’t have any magical solution, except to do what I can in the communities that i’m in to push for sensible solutions.