William Safire said that as a speechwriter for Richard Nixon, he would sometimes urge the president, “Take the easy way!” Nixon could then give a speech saying he had rejected advice from his aides to take the easy way, preferring to do what was right.
Politicians may pretend to make hard choices, but they rarely do. Those in office now won’t be inspired to heroic deeds by the failure to repeal Obamacare. Just the opposite.
The lesson of this episode is that it’s hard to reach agreement on taking things away from the voters. The corollary is that it’s easy to reach agreement on giving things to the voters. The obvious next step is a fiscal binge that serves the selfish interests of everyone except posterity.
