Good Riddance?

This one comes courtesy of Matt Welch:

“You put me in charge of Medicaid, the first thing I’d do is get [female recipients] Norplant, birth-control implants, or tubal ligations,” Pearce said, according to the Phoenix New Times. “Then, we’ll test recipients for drugs and alcohol, and if you want to [reproduce] or use drugs or alcohol, then get a job.”

Pearce said “people out there [who] need help” should get it from “family, church, and community,” not the government.

According to the Washington Post, Pearce said the comments were “written by someone else” and said he “failed to attribute them to the author.”

“This was a mistake,” Pearce said. “This mistake has been taken by the media and the left and used to hurt our Republican candidates.”

Maybe Pearce was just sloppy, maybe he meant what he said — who knows? But Welch adds:

Far too many self-professed limited-government conservatives exhibit the same tic as either Pearce or his unnamed plagiarism victim. Yes, please get the government out of people’s health decisions…as long as those people aren’t receiving any welfare. And if they are? Random drug tests, dietary restrictions on food stamps, and now sterilizations. (Keen observers will note that such intrusive morals-testing is never applied to recipients of corporate welfare.)

More Republicans seem to be moving away from corporate giveaways, to a place where principled Republicans and conservatives have always been. The real proof of course won’t come until they’re back in power and have it in their power to give away the goodies once more. Candidate Obama ran against the ExIm Bank; President Obama positively loves playing Uncle Sugar to corporate interests.

Power corrupts. Absolute power is just fabulous.