Government inefficiency, redundancy, and waste rob the citizens and the economy of wealth that they would put to far better use. The Patriot Act, NDAA, drone spying, the prison at Gitmo, indefinite detention without due process, email and other communications snooping without warrants, and politicians more concerned about their personal enrichment and political careers than resolving any of the major long standing problems facing America. I wish it was different, I wish that these infractions and insults to liberty were so infrequent that I did not have enough material to write about. But that is not the case.
However, let’s take a different tact today and focus on the positive, some political instances of the way things should be and not the way they usually are. These examples of goodness are few and far between but we should celebrate them when they do occur in order to hopefully, sow the goodness elsewhere in our government, our political class, and our country.
Before we start, let me reference one other time where we focused on the good. Such examples were presented at the following link:
http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2009/12/year-end-review-good-bad-and-ugly-today.html
It is has been a long time since we did that feel good post, hopefully, today’s post is also as positive.
1) I believe that just about any human organization expands to fill the budget allowed to it, whether it is a company, a charity, or a political entity, and that organziation will wastefully spend money if it has it to spend. Thus, it was quite refreshing a little while ago when Senator Rand Paul announced that he was actually giving back $600,000 to the U.S. Treasury from his Senate office budget. With a little work, smarts, and ingenuity he found ways to actually do more with less, making his office operations more efficient without sacrificing quality or reducing headcount.
This $600,000 is about 20% of his government operating budget and it comes on top of the $500,000 he returned to the American taxpayer last year. At his press conference announcing his taxpayer savings, he stated that he will also introduce legislation this year incentivizing Federal employees to identify and eliminate wasteful programs in their respective agencies. This aspect of his announcement is especially gratifying since we proposed this exact same program three years ago in Step 1 from our book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government.”
If each member of Congress was as smart and efficient as Senator, the American taxpayer would save over well over $3 billion over the next ten year budget cycle. That could fund a lot of White House tours and Easter Egg hunts.
2) Consider the highlights of a New York Times article from January 23, 2013 that highlighted some of the bold and freedom enhancing steps the Kansas political class is undertaking
- Early in January, 2013, the largest tax cut in Kansas history took effect when income tax rates were substantially reduced.
- The state government has converted its Medicaid system to be handled and managed by private insurers to save money.
- Legislation introduced into the state government in late January would reduce income tax rates further, with the goal of eventually eliminating the state’s individual income tax.
- The government has already reduced the state’s welfare rolls and reduced the state government workforce.
- The governor has merged state government agencies to reduce redundancies and wasteful spending and is proposing further consolidation.
- He is also pushing for state employee pension changes, a government expense that is bankrupting the treasuries of many other state governments because of excessive benefits.
- Senator Susan Wagle, the Republican Senate president who represents the Wichita area had the following quote in the article: “If you look at the demographics of my voter base, a lot moved to Florida and Nevada for lower taxes. I’d like to see them come back.”
Of course, many state politicians do not think this is the right strategy. The fear, as always, is that the poor will suffer the most when taxes are reduced. I do not know if this is true under this approach but as always, those opposed to shrinking government, provide no plans to make government more efficient or effective. They want the status quo maintained or even better, raise taxes and make government even bigger.
But bigger government in Kansas does not seem to be working, at least over the past 14 years. Low economic growth, outward migration of citizens to lower taxing states, redundant and inefficient government operations. The critics of this plan should be working with the Governor to keep basic safety net programs intact while cleaning up the slop in government operations.
Give these members of the political class credit in Kansas for trying something new, something, that if successful, will make government leaner, more effective, and more nimble, increasing freedom by allowing hardworking citizens of Kansas to keep more of their wealth, and keep citizens in the state. Doing nothing is losing, doing something with these huge potential benefits is worth the risk.
By the way, these actions have gotten the attention of other politicians in nearby states, resulting in the following positive domino effect, according to the article:
- The governor of Nebraska has introduced legislation to eliminate a variety of taxes, including ones on individual income and small businesses.
- The governor of Oklahoma plans to call for modest income tax cuts.
- Missouri lawmakers are working on reforming their tax code.
3) A recent story in the March 18, 2013 issue of Business Week gave me hope that there is a chance to clean up political corruption at all levels of government in this country. The article focuses on Cuyahoga County in Ohio, home of Cleveland. If you read some of the quotes and horror stories in the article, you cannot help come to the conclusion that there was a hotbed of political corruption:
- Some businesses would not even do business in the county due to the widespread and embedded cancer of payoffs and corruption.
- Several years ago, residents and business owners said enough is enough and authorities started going after the crooked politicians.
- Sixty two of them were arrested and 47 of them have been sent to jail or are awaiting sentencing.
- County commissioner and Democratic party leader, Jimmy Dimora, was sentenced to 28 years in jail for giving out county contracts in return for money, vacation trips, and prostitutes.
- County auditor Frank Russo pleaded guilty to charges that he steered no bid county contracts to certain contractors in exchange for rewards and he is now serving 22 years in prison.
- 975 county employees were either fired, quit, or retired as a concentrated effort to clear out long standing and deep corruption roots among county employees.
Clean government is good government serving the people, in the least expensive way possible. Kudos to honesty and integrity in Ohio.
4) And finally, a tip of the hat to some politicians long ago who had faith in the free market system when they decided to deregulate the United States' airline industry. They took government out of the equation and substituted free market capitalisim in its place.
At the time, those that favored government control were besides themselves with forboding, claiming that without government regulation and oversight, planes would start falling from the air and prcies would skyrocket. My goodness, how could we not have government involved!
Well, they were right and the politicians that got deregulation approved were the heroes. Airline safety has gotten steadily better since deregulaiotn in 1978 and according to an article in The Atlantic, that was sumamrized in the March 15, 2013 issue of The Week magazine, the cost of airline travel, when adjsted for inflation, is about 50% less expensive now than in those pre-deregulaiton days. A great example where government got out of the way and the world got better, cheaper, and safer.
So, let’s review. We have a Washington politician giving back unneeded taxpayer wealth without sacrificing quality. We have state politicians in the Midwest who understand that tax revenue is not their money to waste and abuse, it is their money to carefully shepherd and use in the most effective and efficient way possible, reducing wasteful government spending and increasing economic freedom for their constituents in the process. We have county and municipal governments in Ohio, who in co-operation with citizens and businesses, have cleaned up their cesspool of political corruption, making their governments more effective, transparent, and efficient. We see the results of getting government out of the economy to improve service but lower the price of a market offering.
Effective, transparent, and efficient, increasing freedom in the process. Is that really too much to ask of Washington also?
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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