[BOB] ABERNETHY: But all the moral debate has not made compromise easy.
[MICHAEL] GERSON: I think moral motivations in politics are very important. But when you claim that your own views somehow have a divine sanction, you’ve cut off all political argument. This should be an argument about outcomes, what is really best for the justice and decency of a society. I think a limited government is important to that, and I think a government that provides some of the most basic needs for the most vulnerable people in society is important to that as well. That’s where a lot of Americans are.
ABERNETHY: Alan Simpson thinks his former colleagues will head off a national crisis and that their constituents will accept the need for sacrifice.
[ALAN] SIMPSON: I think there are a lot more heroes in Congress than we recognize.
[blockquote]SIMPSON: Well, don’t blame it all on Congress. Blame it on the American people who sent people to Washington to bring home the bacon. And the way you got re-elected was you just went and got it for them, and now the pig is dead. There is no more bacon to bring home.[/blockquote]
Truth be said, there is much to blame on both. But as noted here before, we are a democratic republic and the voter has the civic responsibility to be informed, pick the best representative, and tell that person what he thinks. At some point “the people” have to man-up to what they’ve done or failed to do and do a better job of being citizens.
Right on, BlueOntario. While I don’t really how this whole brinkmanship budget game is playing out, I also cringe when I hear hear blame “Washington,” as if Washington is this personified bumbling evil that has been foisted on us completely innocent citizens.
Granted, I understand that the equalized federal/state balance has disappeared long ago and that ‘bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of expanding bureaucracy.’ But, we’re also the ones who have been electing all these people for decades. Instead of constructive policy discussions and actual debate, we’re the ones who want polarization and stupid debates over things like how patriotic a candidate is by whether he wears an American flag pin on his lapel.
I think that Washington we have is the Washington we deserve.
And many apologies for the numerous typos in my previous comment. I hit submit and meant to hit preview.
[i]I think that Washington we have is the Washington we deserve[/i]
Yes, but three other things are at work that have helped to subvert the will of voters trying to make electoral choices which are for the good of the country and not just for self-interest:
1. All our national elected officials have become full time employees; and they have staffs the size of small companies. The growth of the Federal government hasn’t just dramatically shifted the state-Fed balance, the Fed has found many many things to get involved with that are not delegated to it in the Constitution [eg, outlawing the incadescant light bulb, mandating the small-flush toilet, etc]. Pretty soon all these full-time politicians end up spending more time talking to each other than to constituents. Pretty soon, they begin not to care what the constituents think, except at election time.
2. Since the most powerful elected people in America spend all their time, fulltime, in one place, Washington, the professional lobbying class [which includes unions] can set up permanent camp in one place and lobby costantly for their pet issue. We the people do not have the time to do that and certainly not the expense account to wine and dine in the pricy metro-Washington area.
3. The radical socialists, marxists, etc are working together, financed with some deep pockets to be lobbyists also. At both the Federal and state levels; need an example? Illegal aliens coming into the country; big bucks to turn it into a “fariness” issue. Again, we the people in many ways are being outclassed.
Now as #2 pointed out, we still have the vote, but even here there is a game being played to conquer and divide. Class identity politics are pushed hard to pit black against white, rich, middle class, against poor, highly educated vs less educated, old vs young, and on and on. There is very little media dialog about what is good for America. There’s very little dialog about what is America, where did it come from, so that people can make an informed choice as to what [b]is[/b] good for America.
In my state, which has been a one-party state since the early 1950s, once you are elected to Congress you are elected for life.
As the thread is about to be buried and I’m pensive I’m going to jump up on the soap box and muse.
The other point in the article is more difficult to approach. What is the proper role of government in meeting the needs of, well, the needy (and those who want to be counted among the needy)? And where do Christian values or morals come into play? In the US the ideas of the 18th and 19th century turned 180 degrees in the 20th. And while the duties of government in the US towards the health and welfare of individual citizens remain less than what is desired by some, they are beyond what others think proper. Consider this: before the 20th century, if your community were hit by natural disaster and your personal property destroyed, or your crops were lost or damaged by weather, you were on your own hook. If you needed to see a doctor or be treated for anything, you were on your own hook – at least as regards what Uncle Sam would do for you. Need a bridge to cross a river, or even a road to get you to the river? You begin to see how manifest the expansion of what we expect from a Federal government is. In the last century whole commercial and technical sectors have developed around these issues. The list of places of similar extension of government into what was before considered private such as business, finance, or enviromental regulation, can go on and on.
In the desire, perhaps need, to reset the duties of government once again, the focus appears to be on certain personal or individual wants – health or matters of work. But what about local community needs? Is it really a Federal issue to make sure the bridge that gets you to work is safe? Ike built roads for the Army. It just so happens that they are a convenient way to go from city to city. So convenient that we like to use similar roads to go from home to work and back again. The Federal government is ready with a stockpile of tarps when my roof blows off and a program for when my house gets caught up in a flood – or when I lose my job or need retraining or want to go to college or to keep food prices for rollercoastering or…
I guess what I’m trying to say is that all of us 20th century folk have grown comfortable and attached to lots of Federal duties that would have been foreign to 19th century folk. Now that we are looking for change, why is one piece more worthy, more basic or traditional or “founding-fatherish” than anyone else’s? And, when it comes to cutting out duties of government, as a Christian where should I look to cut first? The things that may benefit a few? A few more? The nice things to have around? My personal favorite things? Everything?
And what do we have when we’re done? What new challenge has come out of Pandora’s box that government will be call upon to fix, because that’s what we do. Call on government to fix what we can’t or won’t.
“Give to Caesar…” and “Where your treasure is…” may be places to start as we consider how to change government. But I’m thinking good old self interest will rule the day as always.
BlueOntario– I think the problem is we think we are really paying for all those government services, but in fact they are not being provided any more. Here I pay income tax, sales tax, general excise tax, capital gains tax, gas tax and who knows whatever other taxes for whatever services the government is supposed to provide. And yet our roads are in such bad shape that they are barely driveable, a lot of our infrastructure is falling apart, our schools are basically worthless (besides being closed every Friday because the teachers are on furlough), and police and fire services are drastically cut. In other words, we are paying a lot of money now for virtually nothing.
Where does it go? I have no clue. I know our sewers are falling apart because the sewer trust fund (for which I was dutifully paying a sewer tax every year) was raided by the last city administration and funneled into make-work capital construction projects for their supporters. I know that our Hurricane Relief Fund, for which all homeowners were assessed hundreds of millions of dollars, has now been raided to pay public worker union raises. Basically what I see is our money being siphoned off and kept by government bureaucrats and their hangers on and their constituencies, like the unions and the homeless and the “disadvantaged,” and “minorities,” getting all this money while the rest of us just suck wind.
I don’t want to play the game any more. I’m tired of paying everyone else’s bills and being the chump at the end. I’m basically for shutting everything down, other than military, fire, police, and necessary infrastructure maintenance.
#7, similar where I live. I suspect that even after the current bout of rage dies down I’ll still be paying more to see fewer services, but get to enjoy the “benefit” of just as many people appointed to paid positions on such spoils as the water commission where they can serve for 10 years and retire at twice my income and free health care. Rotten.
[i]I’m tired of paying everyone else’s bills and being the chump at the end[/i]
You are guaranteed not to be alone with those feelings because the current political climate is an assault on the successful; I just heard a clip from a national politican that [i]for those of us who have the means, it is our responsibility to contribute to tackling the debt problems of this country[/i]
And so I think to myself;
1. Why is it never up to unwed mother and father to take responsibility for their actions?
2. Why is it never up to the drug addict or the career criminal to take responsiblity for their actions?
3. Why is it never up to the illegal aliens to take responsibility for their actions?
4. Why is it never up to the person who never saved for retirement, who bought too much house, to take responsibility for their actions?
5. Why is never up to the people who played the fool in school and never made anything of themselves, to take responsibility for their actions?
There was an excellent monolog on one of the talk shows yesterday from an MD who is extremely bitter about the Obama “tax the rich” proposal which of course starts at $200k for single filers. He admitted that he made over $200k last year—–for the first year of his life and he is 65 years old and trying to save every penny he can having just paid back all his loans for late-in-life med school. He is concerned whether he will be able to save enough before he has to retire. He also allowed he is working over 80 hours per week to make as much as he is.
And he is the American dream: he followed his dream, worked his tail off in school, paid off all his loans, and now is essentially working two jobs to make enough to retire. One of the evil, successful people who have to be trimmed back a little so they can learn a little about responsibility.