The President in Responding to Katie Couric

One response to Katie Couric caught my eye -

The President is quoted as saying....."They frustrate me. But, you know, this is a democracy. Look, I would have loved nothing better than to simply come up with some very elegant, you know, academically approved approach to health care. And didn't have any kinds of legislative fingerprints on it. And just go ahead and have that passed. But that's not how it works in our democracy. Unfortunately what we end up having to do is to do a lot of negotiations with a lot of different people. Many of whom have their constituents' best interests at heart." (COLOR HIGHLIGHTS ADDED)

I think that is interesting. The policy process involved in the US system is supposed to test ideas - to mix them up. In this case I am not sure what an "academically approved approach" to any public policy issue should be. Sure people who study stuff have good ideas but their good ideas need to be tempered. Isn't that what was meant by the pursuit of happiness? At this point the best ideas are pulled apart because we don't let the system work enough - so we are forced to get into the kinds of deals like the Nelson amendment to get votes.