(Via Bloosier Hysteria). Evan Bayh referring to the current economic turmoil:
There’s a consensus that we have to do what it takes to avoid a catastrophe. This is economic triage; we need to stabilize the patient. Then we can come up with a long-term prognosis and steps that need to be taken for a cure. When you’re trying to keep a patient’s heart beating and they are on the table, you deal with that first. But we must also maintain the sense of urgency to address the long-term changes that need to be made. The way Congress too often works is that there will be tremendous urgency to act in the short run, then all of the different interests who have a stake in not changing their ways will start circling to prevent systemic reform. The taxpayers and homeowners who are paying their mortgages have a right to be outraged if that happens. This crisis shows that what goes around comes around. Times were good, greed triumphed over fear, people leveraged up trying to make all that they could, and now we’re paying for it.
Except in this case, the cardiac patient is demanding that we pay for his heart surgery while also demanding that we not come around later asking questions if he’s not exercising and spends the money on Cheetos and ribeyes.
Here’s a snippet from a related news release sent today:
“Molecular analysis innovator Predictive Physiology & Medicine announced today that the National Institute of Health awarded the firm a $2.339 million grant to further develop its comprehensive molecular assessment for cardiovascular patients.
“Aimed at boosting the federal agency’s identification of heart health, the grant accelerates the development of PPM’s testing platform that analyzes thousands of molecules in a single blood sample to create a predictive summary of an individual’s cardiovascular health.”
While I care little for government grants, the accelerated research into the cause and cure of heart disease is, uh, heartening.