The National Council for a New America, the Republicans' "rebranding" initiative, got to work over the weekend, hosting an event in a D.C. suburb to talk a bit about GOP policy ideas. Not surprisingly, there wasn't much in the way of new and/or creative thinking.The problem is it hasn't occured to Jeb Bush that the way to get more nurses and engineers is in fact PAY THEM MORE MONEY FOR BEING NURSES AND ENGINEERS. In fact, every effort has been made to cut nurses and engineers especially. We have overwhelming demand for them, but we don't want to pay them more money. Then we complain about not having enough nurses and engineers at the wages hospitals and companies want to pay, and say there's a shortage.But Slate's Christopher Beam noted that there was at least one vaguely new idea.
The most original ideas came from perhaps the most establishment person in the room: Jeb Bush. When someone asked about how to make college affordable, Bush proposed incentivizing tuition by charging different amounts for different degrees. "We need nurses, scientists, engineers, qualified teachers.... If the government is going to subsidize at the fed level, there needs to be strategic nature to it," he said.
As Republican ideas go, this is at least a little different. As the former Florida governor sees it, America needs more nurses and engineers, so it's not unreasonable to think universities should charge lower tuition rates to those who major in those fields. Why should philosophy and poli sci majors pay the same tuition rates as nursing students, Jeb asks, if the country needs more of the latter than the prior?
But of course, increasing wages to attract workers is bad. And unionizing nurses and engineers to negotiate for higher wages is the worst thing imaginable.
But making it cheaper to learn how to be a nurse or engineer? That's fine. Seems to me there's a lot easier of a solution, and it's even a free market one. But then again, it's the GOP.
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