Do rural voters want fewer benefits?

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. http://baucus.senate.gov/ , knows how to look out for his constituents’ interests, at least their short-term ones, but his explanation of his dissent from the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction commission exposes one of the great ironies of U.S. fiscal policy.

Most of the regions where rhetoric is strongest against government spending and entitlement programs are precisely the ones where payments under such programs constitute disproportionate shares of the local economy and household incomes.

Edward Lotterman

Full Story: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/12/25/1466690/edward-lotterman-do-rural-voters.html