by Paul Jacob

The Senate just passed the "Medicare Cost-Sharing and Welfare Extension Act of 2005." Its main purpose is to increase spending on Katrina victims. To offset this, Congress offers one cut, Medicare payments for drugs like Viagra.

Of course, cutting payment for erectile dysfunction drugs should have happened . . . long before Bob Dole stopped making PSAs for the medical problem they alleviate. It's not that E.D. isn't a real problem for some. It's that treating the problem as entitled to public support is a bigger problem for all of us.

Congress should have been firm on this before tragic circumstances forced some cut somewhere. But politicians have such a difficulty standing up to anyone who demands a hand-out from government.

When earlier this year the Associated Press discovered that 800 convicted sex offenders in 14 states had been receiving Medicare payments to solve their alleged problem, the height of absurdity had been reached. Only a pervert or a politician would think that helping rapists recover their sexual prowess was something worth federal subsidy.

But our representatives didn't cut the subsidy until the recent disasters stiffened their resolve. And they STILL haven't cut a thousand-and-one other subsidies from the last omnibus spending bill -- each as absurd as the Viagra subsidy.

Here's today's real "ED" problem: an Evaluative Dysfunction, where our elected representatives can't prioritize for the life of them, can't discern what's truly in the public interest from something that some particular people should be working to solve on their own.

This is Common Sense. I'm Paul Jacob.

Common Sense is published by Americans for Limited Government. Their website can be visited at www.limitedgov.org