IBD Editorials ^ | April 8, 2011 | ROBERT J. SAMUELSON
Posted on Friday, April 08, 2011 7:08:49 PM by Kaslin
We have created suicidal government; the threatened federal shutdown and stubborn budget deficits are but symptoms.
By suicidal, I mean government has promised more than it can deliver and, as a result, repeatedly disappoints by providing less than people expect or jeopardizing what they already have.
But government can't easily correct its excesses, because Americans depend on it for so much that any effort to change the status arouses a firestorm of opposition that virtually ensures defeat. Government's very expansion has brought it into disrepute, paralyzed politics and impeded it from acting in the national interest.
Few Americans realize the extent of their dependency. In 2009 almost half (46.2%) received at least one federal benefit: Social Security, Medicare; Medicaid; food stamps, veterans' benefits, housing subsidies.
The list doesn't include tax breaks. Counting those, perhaps three-quarters or more of Americans receive some sizable government benefit. For example, 22% of taxpayers benefit from the home mortgage interest deduction and 43% from the preferential treatment of employer-provided health insurance.
"Once politics was about only a few things; today, it is about nearly everything," writes the eminent political scientist James Q. Wilson in a recent collection of essays.
The concept of "vital national interest" is stretched. We deploy government casually to satisfy any mass desire, correct any perceived social shortcoming or remedy any market deficiency. What has abetted this political sprawl, notes Wilson, is the rising influence of "action intellectuals" — professors, pundits, "experts" — who provide rationales for political agendas.
The consequence is political overload: The system can no longer make choices, especially unpleasant choices, for the good of the nation.
Public opinion is hopelessly muddled. Polls show Americans want more spending for education (74%), health care (60%), Social Security (57%) and, indeed, almost everything.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
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