Always an Excuse for the Status Quo

A comment from the Poverty Institute’s Linda Katz (no relation) in today’s article about the sides “lining up” in the argument over the global Medicaid waiver expresses an increasingly common sentiment:

Rhode Island College’s Poverty Institute policy director Linda Katz said it’s a mistake to agree to a five-year spending cap without knowing what the state’s needs could be.
“No one can see into the future,” she said.
Katz suggested Rhode Island would not need such a drastic overhaul of its Medicaid program if Congress pumps an additional half a billion Medicaid dollars into the state, a possibility raised in a report issued this week by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and the Center on Budget and Public Priorities.

Just so: Nobody can see into the future. The rational lesson of that conclusion is to prepare for the worst. That, as our crumbling society evidences, is not a lesson that Rhode Island has proven willing to hear. Every year has been one more exercise in wishful thinking, waiting for miracle windfalls.
That must change now. The economic clock is ticking.

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bobc
bobc
15 years ago

No one can see into the future. I guess that doesn’t bode well for RIFuture.

Ken
Ken
15 years ago

Governor Carcieri said he is committed to hiring the talent we need to make sure we manage this Medicaid waver properly.
Excuse me but Gov. you already indicated X amount of money would be saved for this budget year and in the future. Now you are indicating the State of RI is not properly staffed or has the expertise to administer the wavier and has to hire inflated price consultants!
Gee what is wrong with this picture?
Maybe Poverty Institute’s Linda Katz is on to something.

Mike
Mike
15 years ago

“Maybe Poverty Institute’s Linda Katz is on to something.”
Or maybe she’s just “on something”!
Like Goldilocks Brewster and the rest of the “progressives”.

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