LIstening to the debate on Future Care in Parliament has been interesting. Let's just say that it's a good thing the Premier went into medicine and not actuarial science. But that's not what I want to comment on here.
He also made a statement in rebuttal to Grant Gibbons and his estimate of the ultimate cost of Future Care.
Dr. Brown paralleled the cost which the UBP are using with the PLP's number during the election campaign around status grants. You may recall the PLP attacked the UBP for wanting to create 8,000 new status Bermudians (and the press duly repeated it, even though it was on its face absurd creating a phony controversy).
The Premier said that the PLP put a number out there, and he paused to pick his words carefully, 'which resonated', suggesting that the UBP was adopting this tactic on Future Care to 'frighten people'.
So there you have it folks, the Premier proudly admitted that his party blatantly lied to the public during the election campaign as a scare tactic (even though I have no idea what the UBP were doing bringing up status during an election campaign).
Of course this admission invites the completely reasonable accusation that he is similarly fabricating a number now on the low side to give false comfort over the true cost of Future Care.
The extension of the argument was that it's the current and future Governments job to control the cost of Future Care. We know how well Governments in general, but particularly this Government, controls costs don't we. And construction costs are much easier to project and control than health care costs.
Revealingly the PLP, and even the Speaker, continued to interject that the UBP can't criticise the PLP for not costing it out properly because "it was an election promise". There you have it, election promises shouldn't be taken seriously. That was in fact the core rebuttal to the UBP's critique.
While most people expect a certain amount of silliness, political campaigns need to be grounded in some level of honesty. That was one of the UBP's insurmountable challenges; they've been operating around a basic level of seriousness while the other side will say anything no matter how outlandish.
As a friend constantly says to me, riffing on comedian Stephen Colbert's famous line, "reality has an anti-PLP bias".
We desperately need to elevate our political discourse, and demand reality based politics.
Future Care was an election promise issued on the assumption that the details were unimportant and Government revenues would always increase.
Is there anyone left who needs disabusing of that notion? Can Bermuda afford to continue on this way?
