Don't Worry, Be Happy

In Cato at the Town Hall Meeting last month, Ann Marie Buerkle dismissed a couple of serious concerns and the audience never got to ask followup questions.

• Asked about hydrofracking, Buerkle extolled the virtues of natural gas, like how it will solve all our energy problems forever. She explained with great authority that "someone" at ESF,  SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, said that hydrofracking was safe and, anyway, the gas is too deep to be reached economically up here in Central New York. If development goes forward in NY, it will be where the gas is close to the surface down by Elmira and Corning. 

            So long, Elmira and Corning.

• Asked to explain vouchers in Medicare reform, she told us that it wasn't a voucher system. A couple minutes later she called it a voucher system but  said that no one over 55, which was a large percentage of the audience that evening, would not see any change in their Medicare and so not to worry. 

            So long, under-55s.

Buerkle's assumption that everyone in the audience is happy to be self-serving doesn't, fortunately, apply to everyone. Virtually half of the voters back in November, the people who didn't vote for her, are concerned about issues that affect more than just themselves and their own back yards.