Nobody creates and destroys straw men as fast as President Obama. In his Stimulus II kickoff speech last Thursday, Obama accused the House Republicans of believing that “the only thing we can do to restore prosperity is just dismantle government, refund everybody’s money, and tell everyone they’re on their own.”
“That’s not the story of America,” Obama informed us. No duh. Outside of Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, nobody believes completely dismantling all government would be a boon for prosperity.
Government does have a limited role to play. Obama then went on to say, “But there’s always been another thread running throughout our history — a belief that we’re all connected, and that there are some things we can only do together, as a nation.”
This is true, to an extent. But what Obama fails to recognize is that the federal government is not the only way Americans work together to accomplish things. Family, churches, civic associations — what Edmund Burke called the “little platoons” of civil society — are all ways that Americans work together every day without help from the federal government.
Obama also ignores the role that state and local governments have, and can again, play in America’s success. In his speech Thursday, Obama cited “public high schools,” “universities” and “community colleges” as necessities of America’s past success. And they were.
But all of these institutions were founded by, and flourished under, state and local governments. It was not until the mid-1960s that the federal government started interfering with these entities. And a strong argument can be made that these institutions have only gotten worse since the federal government got involved.
“We have long since committed ourselves, as a people, to help those among us who cannot take care of themselves,” President Reagan said when he announced his candidacy in 1979.
“But the federal government has proven to be the costliest and most inefficient provider of such help we could possibly have. We must review the functions of the federal government to determine which of those are the proper province of levels of government closer to the people,” Reagan said.
This is the hard work that Obama has always refused to do. For him, everything is a function of the federal government. What your child learns in school, what you use to light your house, how you choose to receive health care.
Obama believes the federal government must dictate all of these decisions to you. His panel of selected experts know best how you should live your life, and Washington most be empowered to force you to follow their edicts.
The proposals in Obama’s Stimulus II speech are no different. Instead of your state choosing which bridges and roads get built, Obama wants experts at a new National Infrastructure Bank to decide.
Instead of letting businesses choose who they should hire, Obama wants to give special tax breaks to firms that hire the right job applicants. Instead of letting businesses plan for the long term with permanent tax relief, Obama wants another round of temporary tax breaks targeted at select firms.
From Stimulus I to Obamacare to Dodd-Frank, since arriving at the White House Obama has done nothing but concentrate more power in Washington. Our economy has not responded well.
Taking the exact opposite approach, this is what Reagan promised in his Inaugural Address:
“The federal government has taken on functions it was never intended to perform and which it does not perform well. There should be a planned, orderly transfer of such functions to states and communities and a transfer with them of the sources of taxation to pay for them.”
Conn Carroll is a senior editorial writer for The Washington Examiner. He can be reached at [email protected].
