Arthur Laffer, Reagan economic advisor, co-author of Proposition 13, and creator of the Laffer Curve:
An elderly Louisiana woman, 1994 (cf. The System by Haynes Johnson and David Broder, page 558)
[Senator John Breaux] was walking through the New Orleans airport, returning home, when an elderly female constituent approached him. "Senator, Senator," she said, plucking emotionally at his sleeve. "Now don't you let the government get a hold of my Medicare." Breaux, ever the charmer, smiled and said reassuringly of this greatest of government entitlement programs, "Oh, no, we won't let the government touch your Medicare."
I don't believe I have to explain what this says about the Republican economic policy elite.