Is government the problem, or the solution? I guess it might depend on whose government we’re talking about.
For the past thirty-some years, it’s become a mainstream position that government is bad and that we have to be saved from it.
The people telling us this are almost always a particular set of politicians who want a position in the government, or the people who are helping them get that position.
Which is weird.
I mean, if you went to a doctor and he told you he didn’t believe in medicine, would you want him to be the guy who cuts you open and tries to fix your insides?
Probably not.
But, more and more, for over a generation, we’ve been handing our government over to people who pretend to believe that government is innately bad. Or, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt; let’s say they do genuinely believe that government is evil. What does it say about these people that they benefit from government, live off it — and profess that it’s evil?
Not surprisingly, when the government is in the hands of people who profess to hate government, it doesn’t work very well. Under Clinton-Gore, the Federal budget was balanced, the number of federal employees shrank dramatically and the government even began to generate a surplus.
I don’t say these men were saints. I just say they knew how to do their job. In contrast, under each of the Bushes and Reagan, deficits boomed and government grew.
Everybody knows Reagan’s wisecrack, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
Republicans with this philosophy devastated agencies like FEMA when they held office.
The result of this mismanagement and indifference, as we know, was the tragically inept response to disasters like Hurricane Katrina. And this philosophy continues in the GOP: just last month Governor John Kasich refused FEMA help for Ohio for two days, and only relented in the face of mounting criticism. And last year, Mitt Romney (increasingly likely to be the presidential standard-bearer for the Republicans this year), said that disaster relief was “immoral.”
These are people who cannot be trusted to use the power of government for the public good.
Government is like any other human invention. It can work well or badly, depending on what we do with it.
Our government, the government of the United States, is designed to be responsive to our needs and our calls for action. That’s why the Constitution specifically gives Congress the power “to collect taxes… and provide for the general welfare of the United States.”
Nobody likes taxes. I expect even IRS employees complain about them.
But people like what governments do. They like roads and schools. They like being able to call 911 when they need to and get an answer.
Despite a long lifetime of Republican smears, they like Social Security and Medicare. If these programs are so ineffective, so incompetently run, then why are they so popular — so politically invulnerable?
No one likes everything any government does. That’s why we have elections: to smite the government with a clue-hammer, when necessary.
But if a politician can’t use the power of government to do some good for the community, maybe he ought to go into some other line of work.
And if a politician says that government is your enemy, maybe he’s telling the truth — if he succeeds in getting the government power he’s asking you to give him.
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