  A few great lines from an economist I'm reading: "Legislators do not get elected on the basis of campaign slogans that state we could reduce federal spending greatly if only we paid people to live in rural states instead of calling them farmers and paying them to grow commodities for which there is no demand....We pay an extremely high price to shroud our redistributive efforts with political symbols. " --Peter VanDoren, "Should Congress Listen to Economists? " Journal of Politics. Vol. 51, No. 2 (May, 1989). 
