Who Says It’s Dysfunctional?

The New York State legislature is frequently called dysfunctional, but that assumes its function is to make the people of the state better off. In fact, the goal of the state's Republicans has been to force most New Yorkers to accept less in public services and benefits, and the goal of its Democrats has been to force them to pay more for it, particularly in the long run, all while rewarding insiders. And both have succeeded. For example, the Associated Press reports that, adjusting for lots of things, "New York's Medicaid program spends more on long-term health care than other states, but it delivers only average or slightly above average quality." The analysis was not complete because it did not adjust for power and a sense of entitlement, the factors most critical in Albany. If it had, it would have found that New York needs to spend more and more, and New Yorkers who don't know how to work the system for special privileges will have to accept less and less.  Bear that in mind when you see commercials that assert that unless the health care industry gets more and more money, relative to what New Yorkers who have to pay for it earn, it is going to make us suffer or even die.  They don't put it that way, but that is the implication.