Roy, that’s an excellent catch. It’s nice to hear politicians talking about making sure the benefits are worth the costs ? after all, that is something we at the John Locke Foundation have talked about for years. (For example, check out this week’s press release on the costs in jobs of the General Assembly raising taxes during this recession and Policy Report on high-speed rail.) But it’s only nice if they really mean it.
Unfortunately, (though not surprising in the least) the Republicans either are not serious in calling for comparing costs and benefits or have no idea of the practical applications of that philosophy. Such weak-mindedness, ad hoc fumbling for a position counter to Democrats, and the consequential philosophic uncertainty plague Republicans during the heat of policy debates ? a spectacle no doubt partly responsible for why a “conservative state” such as North Carolina is still a one-party state under the thumbs of big-government, self-enriching Democrats.
