From David Galland in Casey's Daily Dispatch:

One of my [holiday party] cocktail chats was with an older woman who is a staunch supporter of the current president. For good reasons, I am forbidden to broach politics at these affairs – but I am able to pipe up if someone kicks the ball in my direction, which this individual did by saying, “I’m almost afraid to ask, but what do you think about the job that President Obama is doing?”

Rather than launch into a dissertation, I turned the question around and asked her how she thought the big O was doing.

“Oh, he’s doing fine.”

“And what has he accomplished?” I asked.

“A lot,” she said, “health care, for example.”

“Interesting,” I opined, “because what I see is that all we are going to get is a mish-mash of new taxes and regulations designed to avoid stepping on the toes of any important lobbying groups. Which is to say, just a big, slimy hairball of new bureaucracy that doesn’t really benefit anyone.”

“Well, yes,” she admitted, “it does seem a little convoluted.”

“You know,” I added, because I believe it to be the case, “but if my fellow Americans in this great democracy have decided that they want free health care for all, which I disagree with, then they should have it. But the government should have then cast an eye around the world for the best of the worst universal coverage plans and set about implementing that – hopefully with some American improvements. Instead, they did the classic political hyena feast with everyone tearing at the legislation, snarling when any other politicians approached the meat of a favored political donor, with the net result being a gruesome carcass that will do nothing but stink up the place.”

Or words to that effect, though I hope I didn’t mix my metaphors quite so badly.

Crux Note: Each day in Casey's Daily Dispatch, David Galland brings you an informative and entertaining overview of the markets, the economy, and politics... all from his unique and often contrarian perspective. Casey's Daily Dispatch is absolutely FREE and comes right to your inbox, five times a week. To sign up, click here...

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