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News | National News | Local Weather          Holly Realty Mid-Carolina Physician Org.  Send this page to a friend -- Email the Opinion Editor  FRED WOLFERMAN: No Way to Reverse The Tide of Spending Our founding fathers
created, virtually from whole cloth, a system of government that has
lasted longer than most in the history of the world. It has allowed us,
along with the benefit of the resources of much of a continent and
millions of Type A immigrants, to become what we now are. But there is a
flaw in this system which was not foreseen, and which was, in any case,
possibly uncorrectable. In the post-Revolutionary War period in which the
Constitution evolved, Washington, Madison, Adams et al, viewed themselves
largely as citizen-legislators, not politicians in the modern sense. They
did not anticipate the development of political parties and professional
politicians, though one can certainly argue that they should have, and in
fact, many of these same men themselves became professional partisans in
short order. The problem this has created with increasing intensity for
over 200 years, is that the focus of our elected representatives is not on
the country, or even their constituents, but on re-election and
self-aggrandizement. Lobbyists, slush funds, absurd retirement plans, they
are all of a piece, and though there are surely some, possibly many, who
hold office for a higher purpose, the political culture has declined
continually for a long time. Fueling this decline has been money, made
available by the fabulous prosperity of our economy and a tax system which
provides revenues faster than inflation can eat them away. Not as fast,
however, as our elected representatives can spend them in a constant
effort to build bureaucracies and buy votes. Thus it is that we find
ourselves deeply in debt, as the president presents a budget that is
scarcely austere, but at least attempts to chip away at some of our more
wasteful programs. His proposal would eliminate 99 programs for a savings
of $8.8 billion, and reduce 55 more for a savings of $6.5 billion. Fat
chance. John Kyl, Republican senator from Arizona, home of Barry
Goldwater, says of a federal aid program for states with impounded
criminal aliens, “It ought to be expanded, not eliminated.” House
Agriculture Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, Virginia Republican, says,
“We want to be fiscally responsible, but we also want to make sure
American agriculture remains competitive.” Bush’s budget would affect 28
current agriculture programs. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg,
New Hampshire Republican, agreed to try to incorporate Bush’s cuts in
non-security spending into the budget, but, by the way, he wasn’t sure he
could support a proposal to cut a prison construction program that would
affect spending in New Hampshire. In case you didn’t notice, these guys
are all Republicans. Democrats are even less helpful. They say that the
proposed cuts would affect only 15 per cent of the budget anyway. The rest
is made up of sacrosanct entitlements and security expenditures. “They end
up doing a world of hurt for very little effect on the bottom line,” says
Rep. John Spratt of South Carolina. Of course he’s right, so look how
everyone is jumping on Social Security reform. The president, too, is long
on rhetoric and short on action. In over four years, he has yet to veto
any bill placed before him. Why would anyone take him seriously now? “All
hat and no cattle,” as Dan Rather used to say. A couple of my favorite
federal beneficiaries are the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Texas and the indoor
rain forest in Iowa. They are well-publicized and loony enough for anyone.
But before you become too self-righteous, look a little closer to home.
Southern Pines has a shiny refurbished train station thanks to Uncle Sam,
and a whole lot of tobacco farmers were just paid a lot of money to end
what was already a government dependency. It’s different when it’s coming
your way. There does not seem to be any way to reverse this tide. Our
politicians will not grapple with it, and we will not force them to. We
are all too happy to take what we can get, apparently without realizing
that our fellow citizens elsewhere are doing the same thing, while we are
all paying for it, along with the massive bureaucracy that has evolved to
manage the process. I can only recall the words of the greatest
philosopher of the twentieth century, Pogo Possum: “We have met the enemy,
and he is us.”  Fred Wolferman lives in Southern Pines. © 2000, 2001 The Pilot Newspaper
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