This article stirred a desire to write several things. The most important subject is Bush’s comments on priorities. He is indeed correct: you can’t prioritize spending (or anything else) if you don’t have general priorities in the first place. (As usual, Bush said the right thing in an awkward way). The notion of priorities is often missing from political discourse. People will support a lot of policies as long they don’t interfere with higher priorities. This explains the controversy on lots and lots of issues. It’s not always that priorities are different – it’s often the case that the conflicts between policies are unseen.
A good example is the state of roads and bridges. The collapse of the I-35W bridge has certainly sharpened the focus on highway funding, but even prior to that the poor state of roads and traffic congestion have been hot button issues in Minnesota. But recent polling shows that Minnesotans don’t want an increase in the gas tax. Priorities at work!
