To get the goods, pay the freight
As California’s budget process heats up, we’ll begin hearing more and more about the good, the bad and the ugly regarding the size and reach of government. Some want it small, others as big as needed to deliver what’s needed to fulfill the aspirational terms of our constitution’s preamble. You know, the “We the People …” thing. And big enough that favorite programs benefiting this or that group don’t get cut.
We all want what we want, right? But are we willing to pay for it?
We raise our kids to not be part of the “gimme, gimme …” generation with a sense of entitlement, but then proceed to model exactly what we don’t want our kids to be. One hallmark of infantile thinking is the wanting of something without a sense of having to work or pay for it. We all thought like that when we were kids, and our parents hopefully gave according to our needs.
The Apostle Paul said it most succinctly: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” He also rebuked some Thessalonians, “You don’t work, you don’t eat.” One of the “childish things” to be put away is the magical thinking which pervades our culture in the sense that we expect all our needs to be fully met.
We expect first responders to come promptly; crimes to cease or be solved; criminals to be put away; parks and neighborhoods to be clean and safe; schools to be maintained and clean and safe; hospitals and ERs always to be at the ready; libraries to be open and well-staffed; the homeless housed and fed; graffiti to disappear; all our amusements satisfied and on and on. Magical thinking makes us want it all with a government that’s small enough not to be noticed, or costly, or cramping of our lives. We want our government to be like our mommies and daddies, always protecting us and always there with our allowances and goodies simply for the asking — all without any sense of our having to pay the freight to obtain the benefits. We want small government with big benefits, and don’t see this is a contradiction in terms. We have aged in years but not in wisdom; we have not put away childish things. If we had, we’d have realized by now we have to pay for what we want and expect.
At the federal level, former President Reagan twice planted a cynical thought deep into the public mind when he said about the increasing federal debt, “Our government cannot solve this problem because it is the problem.” In another speech, he said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” Utterly and strangely blind to the irony of it, he lent his untiring “help” to expand the size, cost and payroll of his administration. Coining the phrase “Drain the Swamp,” he underwrote the Grace Commission at great expense to bring efficiency into — and cut waste from — government, took one look at it, saw how it would adversely affect his Cabinet full of cronies, and promptly filed it where the sun don’t shine. He fed the swamp and kept it growing all the while blasting its
BRIK MCDILL size and inefficiency. Between the beginning and the end of the Reagan presidency, the annual deficit almost tripled. As did the gross national debt — from $995 billion to $2.9 trillion.
When New Jersey was slammed by Hurricane Sandy, Gov. Chris Christie raced to President Obama begging for quantities of money, men, machinery and materiel of a size that would dwarf previous handouts — that was readily available and given. Would that handout have been instantly at the ready if we had a government of the size budget hawks want?
I hate to break the news, but there is no Santa Claus. And magical thinking builds not men, nor machines, nor nations. With only 4.3% of the world’s population, we get to enjoy the fruit and untold benefits of living in the strongest, most powerful nation in the world. Our dollar undergirds and underwrites the world economy, American English is the universal language, and our advanced technology and university systems are the envy of the world. We carry the mantle “The Indispensable Nation.”
You don’t get all that on the cheap. Legislative budget hawks vote against appropriations then take the bows, the praise, the accolades and the credit for money flowing into their districts, and boast of and proudly claim their local and our country’s achievements. They rail and vote against the spending but proudly keep showing up for the glad-handing back-slapping toast-making champagne-sipping, hoopla photo ops and grandstanding ribbon cuttings, and see neither the inanity nor the hypocrisy of it.
As the Apostle Paul said …