big government

First, Try Getting the Little Things Right

by Ryan Young on October 8, 2010

in Politics as Usual, Stimulus to Nowhere

Conservatives and Progressives believe in the power of government. Conservatives think that government can build democracies abroad and enforce morality. Progressives think government can lift people out of poverty and correct market failures.

This faith in government is simply astounding, given the evidence to the contrary. Government is charged with some big tasks. Some of them are necessary. But often, it can’t even do the little things. Have a look at these two news stories:

Stimulus Checks Sent to the Dead

Postal Union Election Delayed After Ballots Lost in the Mail

Washington has centuries of experience cutting checks and delivering the mail. You’d think they’d have it down by now; apparently not. Even so, politicians from both parties are still pushing for more, more, more. The right wants more military spending. The left wants more entitlement spending. They have all the faith in the world that their proposals will work as intended.

Sometimes, being a classical liberal feels like being the only atheist in a room full of believers.

Federal Register Hits 25,000 Pages

by Ryan Young on May 6, 2010

in Deregulate to Stimulate, Economy, Regulation

This morning, the 2010 Federal Register passed the 25,000 page mark with an “Issuance of Order for Implementation of Additional Security Measures and Fingerprinting for Unescorted Access to Florida Power and Light Company” from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

After 87 working days, the Federal Register stands at 25,098 pages. That’s an average of 288 pages every single day of proposed rules, final rules, notices, and other federal doings.

Assuming 250 working days in a year, the Register is on pace for 72,121 pages, a slight increase over 2009’s 69,676 pages.

Back in January, it was on pace for a mere 63,187 pages. The pace has been accelerating since.

Can President Obama top President Bush’s final Federal Register, which ran to 79,435 pages? We shall see what the coming months bring.

Waxman baseball tobacco ban not worth chewing on

by Michael Fumento on April 23, 2010

in Nanny State, Odds & Ends

Major League Baseball should ban players from using smokeless tobacco in dugouts and on the field because of its health risks and influence on kids, according to Rep. Henry Waxman (D.-Ca.), chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

“Millions of young fans are exposed on a daily basis to the use of smokeless tobacco by their heroes,” Waxman, a California Democrat, said recently at a hearing in Washington. “This is a serious health risk. The increased use of smokeless tobacco will mean millions more teens getting hooked on nicotine.”

A few points up front.

Anybody who uses tobacco in any form has a screw loose. It’s a powerful carcinogen. Chewing tobacco, or smokeless tobacco as it’s sometimes called, can cause cancer to any part of the body it touches, including lip, tongue, cheeks, gums, and the floor and roof of the mouth. Personally, I like those body parts. Granted most people who chew will not develop cancer from it. It’s all a matter of odds.

Chewing is clearly one of the most disgusting habits ever invented. The only ones I can think of that are more disgusting are too disgusting to mention. For example, there’s . . . Nope!

At one time in public places like post offices and train stations, women had to hold up their skirts as they walked because the floor was literally covered with spit. Sure, there were plenty of spittoons but invariably men’s aim was off and a lot of men never even tried to use them. Why, when there was a perfectly good piece of floor below them?

I tried chewing tobacco once when it was offered to me in the Army. The nicotine rush came on so fast I almost fainted. The taste was horrific. Yeah, I spit and fast.

I also don’t doubt that seeing their sports heroes chew leads some younger people to chew, and that’s truly deplorable.

My problem with Waxman’s would-be edict is that this isn’t something the government should do, it’s something Major League Baseball, individual teams, and fan groups should do.

There has never been a more powerful motivator than societal opprobrium and approval. Society makes clear certain things are wrong or right through social carrots and sticks. But it doesn’t work when government does it, because government just passes a law. The more government became involved in negative behaviors like unwed pregnancy the worse they got, in part because government involvement replaced the old strictures.

Why is chewing already vastly less common than it once was? (Note inset photo with a spittoon behind every shooter in a gallery. When I go shooting, there’s no spittoon behind me.) It’s the success of societal opprobrium.

In other words, it’s precisely because I think that chewing is such a bad habit that I want government to back off. This is an issue for others to deal with. And actually, I’ve got a nifty idea. Instead of directly outlawing spitting, why doesn’t MLB mandate a spittoon at the pitcher’s mound and at each base? THAT will send a message!

Tax Freedom Day

by Ryan Young on April 9, 2010 · 1 comment

in Deregulate to Stimulate, Economy, Regulation

Today, April 9, is Tax Freedom Day. The good folks at the Tax Foundation calculated how much money local, state, and federal governments harvested last year from taxpayers ($3,469,000,000,000), and compared that to national income ($12,901,000,000,000). At 26.89 percent of national income, you basically work until April 9 just to pay off your taxes.

April 9 is the national average; different states have different tax burdens, so Tax Freedom Day actually varies from state to state. If you live in Alaska, you already celebrated Tax Freedom Day on March 26. But if you live in Connecticut, you have to keep the champagne on ice until April 27.

That isn’t the whole picture, though. The federal government spends far more than it taxes. $1,414,000,000,000 more, last year alone. The burden of federal deficit spending adds another 40 days. Not even counting state and local deficit spending, that puts us out to May 19 by my calculations (May 17 by the Tax Foundation’s).

Even that’s not all. The hidden tax of federal regulation cost businesses and consumers an additional $1,187,000,000,000 last year, according to Wayne Crews’ soon-to-be-released 2010 edition of Ten Thousand Commandments (previous editions are online here). None of that extra trillion-plus actually shows up in the federal budget. Regulation eats up an additional 9.2 percent of national income, or 8.3 percent of GDP. So you have to work an additional 34 days until you pay off the federal regulatory burden.

It’s tempting to brush off regulatory costs, since most of them are borne by businesses. But remember, businesses pass on their costs to consumers. You pay for the regulatory state. Its costs are real.

Adding together total taxes, plus federal deficit spending, plus federal regulations pushes us out to June 22 by calculations, or June 20 by the Tax Foundation’s.

And remember, that’s leaving out state and local deficit spending. Nor does it count state and local regulations. I don’t have the data handy for that. But if they add up to at least $460,000,000,000 then we’re past the half-way mark of the year. Just to pay for government.

Even using the larger number of GDP ($14,253,000,000,000 in 2009), and leaving state and local deficit spending and regulation, we’re still talking 42.9 percent of the economy going to pay for government. That’s 157 days out of the year. You’re not free until June 6 even by that generous measure.

I’d argue that government has grown too big, but the data have already done that for me.

That Didn’t Take Long

by Ryan Young on January 7, 2010 · 1 comment

in Deregulate to Stimulate, Regulation

Today is the fourth working day of the new year. The Federal Register is already over 1,000 pages long.

At this rate, the 2010 Federal Register will hit 63,187 pages. This is an improvement over 2009, when it reached 69,676 pages. In 2008, it was 79,435 pages.

Don’t go “lite,” shrink the state, says Smith

by Fran Smith on November 11, 2009

in Deregulate to Stimulate, Nanny State

CEI’s president Fred Smith is featured today in a video interview with InstaPundit’s Glenn Reynolds – now appearing on Reason’s blog.  Fred talks about “moving government out of the way” as impediments to innovative approaches to issues.  The interview was based on his recent article in The American Thinker, “GOP should grow the Party, grow the economy, and shrink the state.”  As Fred says, GOP must resist pressure to go “Democrat-lite.”

Just what IS in those enormous health care bills?

by Michael Fumento on November 4, 2009

in Healthcare

With the House version stacked bigger than Dolly Parton at about 2,000 pages, anybody who says they know for certain is lying. It’s not just the verbiage but how it will be interpreted in the years to come. Still, there’s more than enough to be alarmed enough to want to kill the bills off.
“Rather than overwhelm you with arcane details of each bill,” writes Robert Bidinotti in an engaging and highly annotated essay, “it is more important that you understand in principle what ObamaCare will mean for you and your family.” Going into detail (but not too much), he says they include:

  • Outrageous Costs.
  • Soaring Taxes.
  • Perverse Incentives.
  • Government rationing.
  • Broken promises.

He states:

A single-payer, government-run program of socialized medicine is the stated objective of those who designed this legislative monstrosity—from President Obama, to the vast coalition of unions and advocacy groups, to the congressional leaders who drafted these bills. They explicitly intend to bankrupt the private-insurance marketplace, so that only the government option remains. Far from adding “choice and competion,” then, ObamaCare aims at imposing on us a government health-care monopoly.

Urge your congressman to vote for Dolly Parton instead.

Here’s the House health care reform bill, catering to the public’s right to know

by Michael Fumento on October 29, 2009 · 1 comment

in Healthcare

Everything you need to know, right here. And the best part is, it’s only 1,990 pages long! Print it out and read it during a coffee break.

Seriously, with a document this long do you think anyone really knows what’s in it? Doesn’t that thought spook you?

Student Loan Socialism

by Richard Morrison on September 29, 2009

in Video, Zeitgeist

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJReAunlOw0 285 234]

Obama Rejects Reality as “Politics of the Moment,” Embraces Politics of Fear

by Alex Hankins on July 21, 2009 · 2 comments

in Healthcare, Insurance, Personal Liberty

Listening to President Barack Obama and other top Democrats on the subject of health care, one could be forgiven for thinking commercial medicine itself is on the verge of collapse, and that most of us soon will be completely unable to access decent medical treatment.  In response to criticisms from GOP lawmakers and gloomy CBO projections, Obama re-emphasized what he insists is a need for immediate, drastic reform.  He dismissed the illumination of the fiscal insanity of his prized health care plan as the “politics of delay and defeat” and “politics of the moment” and said, “The need for reform is urgent and it is indisputable.”

It is impossible to arrive at the conclusions Obama apparently has reached on health care reform without blanking out reality and ignoring a host of contradictions.  Sure, health care is expensive.  How did it get so costly?  Blank-out.  Whose responsibility is it to provide health insurance?  Blank-out.  Who will pay for this massive overhaul?  Blank-out.  How will this legislation accomplish its stated goals?  Blank-out.  How have similar programs in other countries fared?  Blank-out.  What incentives does government have to provide and maintain quality health care?  Blank-out.  Whose “need” is really served by this behemoth of a bill?  Blank-out.  What does the bill even say?  Blank-out.

Still, even Obama recognizes that time is against him.  With his approval ratings falling, his stimulus package failing, the ugly details of the bill leaking out, and the economy already suffering enough, he knows that it’s now or never.  That is why he is determined to convince the country that without major action by the great and glorious State, health care costs will climb forever, eventually pricing everyone out of affordable care.  Never mind the fact that costs cannot rise out of consumers’ reach without bankrupting service providers.  Blank that out, too.

Former President George W. Bush was roundly criticized for employing the “politics of fear” to expand the police powers of the executive branch.  During his administration, terrorism was the great goblin to be fended off by our benevolent bureaucracy.  If the government did not get greater surveillance and detention powers, it was reasoned, terrorists could execute another massive attack, killing thousands or even millions of Americans.  We were urged to be vigilant and trust increasingly powerful law enforcement authorities to guard against evil outsiders sneaking in and attacking us once again.  Stand with your country, or the terrorists will win.

The politics of fear are even more pronounced under the new administration, and arguably more insidious.  Our sworn enemy during the Bush years at least was tangible and defined, and fighting it was basically a matter of fulfilling one of the few proper functions of government:  defending the homeland.  In the age of Obama, the enemy is privation itself–invisible, yet ever-present; undefined, yet understood and feared by all; not a prescribed province of government activity, yet action on which is demanded and welcomed by a fear-stricken populace.  To fight this enemy, we are presented with an ultimatum:  turn choice in health care over to the government, or risk losing medical coverage for our families.  We are asked to grant the state a new level of authority, the gravity of which is surpassed only by its ambiguity.  A 1,018-page bill, rammed through with little debate and against all informed judgment?  So much for that transparency we were promised.

The urgency Obama conveys in his push for universal health care coverage reflects his own concerns about his dwindling political capital, not the dangers of rising health care costs.  He knows as well as Congress does that the more time we have to examine the bill and consider the veracity of the claims made to justify it, the more likely we are to hold him accountable for the unprecedented and unacceptable power grab this really is.

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