Yesterday I argued on these pages that Newt Gingrich is an unlikely alternative to Mitt Romney because both candidates have a similar worldview. Gingrich, like Romney, sounds a lot like a leader of one of Europe's conservative parties. In Europe, the Conservatives have given up on shrinking the scope of government and are content to campaign on their ability to run the bureaucracy more efficiently. Gingrich used identical rationale when asked to explain his support for Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit passed in 2003. On the government, my position is very straightforward. If you're going to have Medicare, which was created in 1965, and was created at a time when practically drugs didn't matter. There weren't very many breakthroughs at that point. To take a position that we won't help you with insulin but we'll pay for your kidney dialysis is both bad on a human level and bad on financial level. "If you're going to have Medicare," he begins. That's the point, isn't...(Read Full Post)