tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post2662282392484449583..comments2024-03-25T20:06:39.794-05:00Comments on Grits for Breakfast: Trauma center cuts leave hospitals more reliant on Driver Responsibility surchargeGritsforbreakfasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10152152869466958902noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-48274856947223806992011-07-23T11:28:42.647-05:002011-07-23T11:28:42.647-05:00When your only tool is a hammer, all you see are n...When your only tool is a hammer, all you see are nails. At home, it's prisons. Abroad, it's warfare.<br /><br />But then when you see the lack of political, diplomatic and negotiating skills, not to mention just plain old-fashioned civility, in our current crop of pols, this is no surprise.<br /><br />Of course many of our pols are being well paid by their corporate masters not to negotiate in good faith or compromise on anything.<br /><br /><i>“The genius of American politics is compromise.” - Shelby Foote</i>The Comediannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-59312698245350856572011-07-22T14:12:04.038-05:002011-07-22T14:12:04.038-05:00I agree wholeheartedly with Grits on this one. Bu...I agree wholeheartedly with Grits on this one. Budgets do reflect morality and it seems to me we budget much more for the dark side of life (1,000s of new laws every year, more and bigger prisons, etc.) than the positive and productive (healing the sick and educating the populace).<br /><br />I am sick of our punish-everything society. I'd so much rather we ditched most laws, returned the state and nation to the land of the free, and play nice for a change. It's possible and that's how I cast my votes.Sandynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-77920882045580816962011-07-22T11:31:27.060-05:002011-07-22T11:31:27.060-05:00I am fully willing to admit that my views on crimi...I am fully willing to admit that my views on criminal justice are far out on the tail of the distribution, that does not however mean I am unable or unwilling to find common cause with those closer to the middle. <br /><br />It was only the last sentence of your post "Budgets are moral documents and the morality expressed in Texas' most recent one seems suspect, at best." that I have any objection to.Soronel Haetirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11639906179427371695noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-26879381105185297832011-07-22T11:24:55.077-05:002011-07-22T11:24:55.077-05:00Fine, SH, just don't take that as some endorse...Fine, SH, just don't take that as some endorsement of your overall worldview, which is pretty out there.<br /><br />And yes, your final, rather restrained observation was in fact the concluding point of my post: The Lege decided keeping the prisons stuffed and farming more contracts out to their friends and contributors in the private-prison industry was more important than funding trauma centers or schools. The question is are those <a href="http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/2011/07/21/19975/crowded-expensive-jails-low-crime-rates-vs-budget-" rel="nofollow">voters' priorities</a>? Check back after the 2012 election and if the Republicans still hold that 101 member supermajority in the Texas House, then voters will have endorsed that path. We'll see.Gritsforbreakfasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10152152869466958902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-12644543521653328032011-07-22T11:03:42.776-05:002011-07-22T11:03:42.776-05:00Grits,
Prioritizing law enforcement above pretty ...Grits,<br /><br />Prioritizing law enforcement above pretty much everything else, however, is evidently a view endorsed by the legislature.Soronel Haetirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11639906179427371695noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-7829055316712544912011-07-22T10:39:46.319-05:002011-07-22T10:39:46.319-05:00Soronel, your self-proclaimed stance is that nearl...Soronel, your self-proclaimed stance is that nearly all offenders should be executed on the first offense and the government has virtually no other function but law enforcement. That's not a view tbe Texas Legislature has ever endorsed.Gritsforbreakfasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10152152869466958902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-75759180240806036432011-07-22T10:07:51.754-05:002011-07-22T10:07:51.754-05:00Grits,
My stance is evidently not that far out on...Grits,<br /><br />My stance is evidently not that far out on the fringe as prisons did not get cut very much while pretty much everything else felt the knife to a painful degree.Soronel Haetirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11639906179427371695noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-41480853762197917532011-07-22T09:54:54.786-05:002011-07-22T09:54:54.786-05:00Yes, Soronel, but perhaps you'll agree your vi...Yes, Soronel, but perhaps you'll agree your views about the extremely limited role of government are an outlier. Perhaps you'll also even agree that prisons don't get great bang for the buck.<br /><br />Where we may differ is that IMO trauma hospitals are public goods that, because of their tremendous expense, couldn't exist left to the devices of the market. If you want to reduce deaths from DWI or murder, for example, funding trauma centers is arguably as or more important than funding law enforcement to the gills, if priorities must be set.Gritsforbreakfasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10152152869466958902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-8351684079258095302011-07-22T09:27:24.544-05:002011-07-22T09:27:24.544-05:00Sorry, I would have to disagree with you on that l...Sorry, I would have to disagree with you on that last. There is perhaps nothing that is more legitimately the arena of government than punishing those who transgress the law. Everything else (and I would definitely include both education and health care in this category) is nice if there is money for it, dispensable otherwise.Soronel Haetirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11639906179427371695noreply@blogger.com