Interestingly, I’m finding increasing clarity in my life (philosophically, anyway) as I get older, while my life gets increasingly complex. It’s not what I would have expected.
The government attempted to roll out its new Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA, or “Obamacare” as it’s come to be known, and the President once at his height – and now, likely regrettably – boasted openly of having the law named for him. Whoops.) The rollout was less of a “roll out” and more like a “roll over.” In its wake we’ve had Congressional inquests (how ya’ like that, Katherine Sebelius?), Presidential apologies (“When I said you could keep your policies and doctors, period!, what I really meant was ‘you’ll get nothing and like it'”), and a media feeding frenzy. Bueno.
As far as I’m concerned, the more times the government can step in it whenever it attempts some giant overreach, the better off these United States will be in the long run. Perhaps another Chernobyl-like meltdown can occur in some other large sector of our economy and we can claim it (back) from the feds. Likely not, but it’s nice to dream.
What is surprising to me, notwithstanding my own belief that about 60% of the populace are not- uhhhhh, how to say this politely- raising the average IQ level in the gene pool, so to speak [FN1] – is my confidence that this event may lead to some needed changes in our government and among the citizenry. I have no idea from whence this optimism comes.
Maybe I’m reading the wrong news, but I can’t help but believe (with all of my entirely anecdotal evidence) that the President and those who rammed this debacle down the citizenry’s throats are now going to have to reap what they’ve sown. The poll numbers appear to be just free-fall kind of abysmal. I still can’t help but be frustrated that insufficient numbers of people are discussing how obvious it is – and was – that this was/is part of the design from the beginning. A wonderful piece at National Review explains it, here. Regarding the idea that this was the plan all along for a government takeover of the health insurance market (first) and then all of healthcare, a close friend of mine recently said it succinctly: “Of course it was a plan. The state run saw mill doesn’t run as long as the private saw mill is still a going concern. You have to put the private one out of business before the government run saw mill can be viable.”
Now, at first blush, this just seems cynical. Then there’s an instant before you start trying to find counter-examples. What business does the US government do better than a private enterprise…? Certainly “war” is a good answer, but that almost doesn’t count – that’s what countries are supposed to do (by Constitutional declaration, in fact). Any purely governmental functions, including things like diplomacy, war fighting, immigration, seems kinda dumb to use as a comparison, as they are peculiarly the matter of sovereign responsibility (i.e. it’s what we actually pay our taxes for). So, is NASA (space travel) something government does better? Well, one could say the verdict is still out on that one, because government has made it its exclusive province by fiat, but that might miss some important history. It turns out the first probe to land on the moon? That was the much forgotten Surveyor I, part of the larger Surveyor program that was the predecessor to the Apollo project’s goal putting a man on the Moon. Surveyor was run almost entirely by Hughes Aircraft, under a government contract. Read that again so there’s no misunderstanding. The proposal to put an unmanned probe on the Moon came not from the military/government, but was first proposed by some UCLA Post-Doctorals who had been hired on at Hughes. They wrote the proposal and the entire Surveyor program was run by scientists, engineers, and others at Hughes Aircraft. (I know one of the original proposal writers, as it happens, now in his 80s and living in Prescott, AZ). His son once joked that when Neil Armstrong uttered his now famous lines from the Moon, dad didn’t even look up from dinner, drily observing that, “Of course he made it to the Moon. We proved we could put a craft there 3 years ago. The only proof left was the human physiology aspects of getting him there.”
So, what does that leave for government to do better than private enterprise? Post Office? (Nope, that’s explicitly written into the Constitution as a governmental function, was never private, and even then, if you HAVE to get a package delivered overnight, do you use the Post Office? Nope. You use FedEx or UPS.)
In fact, you really have to think hard about where it is that government does anything well, efficiently, and reliably. Education? Puh-lease. Even with a monopoly, the numbers for our children just keep getting worse and worse with each succeeding generation for more dollars spent and no one can figure out why. I’ll explain why (and speak slowly): G-o-v-e-r-n-m-e-n-t.
How about government run hospitals, say the VA hospital, versus private care? Hmmmm…maybe not a good example.
Nope, the reality is that government is good at making war and otherwise mediocre to horrible at even its core competencies. DMV, Post Office, Administration (generally – like balancing the budget, for example.)
It’s evident to even the most ardent Progressive (modern day liberal) or even moderate Democrat (if such a thing even exists any more) that the “long list” of great, successful purely governmental efforts or initiatives, is rather short. Moreover, any reasonably unbiased US citizen (and polls would tend to agree) can’t find much to cheer over government about. Almost all of its “Great Society” style programs are – even if we grant their good intentions – wildly inefficient, rife with fraud, and create generations of dependents. Generally speaking, giant governmental programs suck and the bigger they are, the more suck they produce. Fraud, waste, cronyism, political favors/kickbacks in contracting, useless red tape, never-ending budget and departmental growth, redundancy, and bureaucratic indifference (ever been to a really great customer-oriented governmental agency or office? Yeah, me either.) And yet people persist in the face of this reality to claim that the solution to any problem affecting the country is “more government” – as if suddenly it had gotten more efficient since the last failed attempt – a few days ago.
So, maybe my as-yet-unjustified optimism stems from a belief that even that 60% of the population that can’t drive in the rain will eventually wake up to the real problem that besieges this country: too much fucking government. And maybe, just maybe, we can start trimming some of that behemoth back, from regulation to taxation to government contracting (and yes, that includes DoD, which is the worst).
[FN 1] Actually, as a matter of statistics, that statement really isn’t very far off or (much of) an insult. If you think I’m wildly off and want anecdotal evidence, try driving in or around any major metropolitan area in the United States for a few hours near peak driving times, in the morning and at night. Add in some driving in even moderate rain/inclement weather and then tell me you don’t conclude that my statement above is accurate. And those are the people (mostly) who have a driver’s license blessed by some state government bureaucracy. (Another perfect case for the brutal inefficiencies of government, the DMV).