Ask the voters?

Intelligent Discontent takes a shot at Bob Story's opinion piece about the CHIP program.

Story's position seems to be that if voters had known then what they do now about how bad the economy would be, they would never have supported expansion of that health insurance program. He's guessing about that, and he may be guessing wrong. Arguably, shoring up health insurance is more important during hard times than when surpluses are bulging.

But there's no way to really know, even if he had a solid poll backing his position. Polls aren't elections, and elections mean something. As I have often said, I don't much like voter initiatives. Passing legislation may be like making sausage, but I'd rather have sausage than the raw meat of a public vote. Good bills have to be carefully drafted, argued out, fiddled with, debated and amended. Initiatives cut out that process.

Story is now telling us that a voter-passed initiative is just an advisory opinion. My take: If we aren't willing to let voters have the final say, then get rid of initiatives altogether.