Why Are Things Not Working?

“I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” – Ronald Reagan
Earlier this month columnist Daniel Henninger wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Killer Bureaucracies” where he stated that in our federal government today, it is not clear who’s in charge. He pointed to one thing after another: Ebola, the Secret Service, Veterans Affairs, ObamaCare’s rollout, the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
He expressed the concern that these federal bureaucracies are in place to protect, and I would add, serve people, not to put them at risk. He stated:
“Ebola’s spread in West Africa was predicted. Government agencies responded late. Now it’s here. The Secret Service is so disorganized it can’t protect, of all things, the White House. Veterans died waiting for admission to VA hospitals. The CDC lost track of anthrax, smallpox and H5N1 bird-flu samples. At the State Department, no one seems to quite know why a U.S. ambassador died in Benghazi. The 9/11 Commission explained in detail how the attackers evaded the bureaucracies. Add to this list the Internal Revenue Service, an agency of extraordinary power that has forfeited the public’s trust. It is past time to start thinking about how much could be going wrong at so many federal agencies. Watchful waiting isn’t the cure for the next bureaucratic meltdown.”
He points out that the defenders of large government usually make allowance for the failures by complaining about government being underfunded. And I ask at this point rhetorically, will they ever have enough? This last year alone, the federal government took in $239 billion more from taxpayers than the year before, 8.6 percent more; very few Americans saw their income grow like that last year.
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How can we thrive when federal regulations and taxes
have become like glue on the soles of our running shoes?
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More money sent to Washington is not the answer. A letter writer from Virginia State Delegate Jim LeMunyon, wrote in response to Henninger’s column: “The federal government has grown too big to manage and too big to succeed. One example is that Virginia’s local school divisions are required to send 39 reports a year to Richmond documenting an array of educational activities. The information in 35 of these reports is required by the federal government and passed to Washington. If a state or local government wants to try a new way to improve education, Medicaid, transportation services or keep the environment clean, count on its needing a permission slip from Uncle Sam first.”
Another letter writer, Randall Kilgore, CPA, pointed out that “the government monopoly operates with none of the ordinary competitive pressures of the marketplace…and unlimited by a profit motive, the government monopoly rolls ever onward.”
A mere century ago, the federal government consumed a tiny fraction of our economy, but not so today. It has sent its tentacles into so much of our lives that its regulations and taxes have become like glue on the soles of our running shoes. With the economy muddling along, young people trying to enter the workforce have little place to go.
If you are one of those young people, I say, you must open your eyes and think for yourself! The American Council of Trustees and Alumni just released their annual analysis, and among their findings from an analysis of 1098 four-year colleges and universities, 18 percent require American history. Let’s pause here for a moment: We have had the most successful nation the world has ever seen. Shouldn’t you understand, fully understand, how that came to pass. If you want the prosperity and freedom of the prior generations, shouldn’t you understand how that came to pass? Would you head out somewhere without knowing what direction to go? Would you go without a map?
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In summary, we are quickly going to the polls. We have a constitution that divides power between the states and the federal government. It is a well-known fact that decisions should be made at the lowest possible level. Washington should handle the things that the states, through the Constitution, delegated to it. We need to elect people who both know and understand this. In so doing, we will put our nation back on the path to ever-greater heights, and leave future generations a greater nation than we ourselves inherited. The day will again soon come when we repeat Reagan’s words: say, “Its morning again in America.”
Art Hall
From the Bible: The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the dwelling of the righteous. Proverbs 3:33