The idea that the US Federal Government is too big, inefficient, and wasteful of hard-working taxpayers’ dollars, is almost universally accepted. Ronald Reagan started it in 1981 with his famous quote “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
Thom Hartmann in his
February 28 substack post disagrees completely. He argues that the government
isn’t too big, rather it is much too small.
When Reagan came into
office federal workers made up 2.6% of the American workforce; today it is
0.87%. The number of government workers has declined, particularly during
Republican administrations, while the American population has grown. Hartmann
argues that to continue to offer services that Americans need to be really free,
the federal workforce should grow with the population.
Republicans love to talk
about “freedom” but what does it mean to be really free? Hartmann quoted Franklin
D Roosevelt’s 1933 inaugural speech “A
necessitous man is not a free man”. Hartmann expands on this idea by making
the point that you are not free if:
· You can’t
afford to take your sick children to the hospital or doctor
· You can’t
afford to go to college to improve your future earnings
· You don’t
start a family because you can’t afford child care
· You can’t
buy food for your hungry family
· You are
old and disabled but have to work in order to live
· You can’t
afford to buy or rent a decent place to live
· You are
being ripped off by your bank, insurance or other businesses and there is no help
· Your vote
is drowned out by billionaires’ election donations
· Your employer
won’t let you and your fellow workers unionize to improve workplace safety and wages
· You live
in fear of you or your family being shot on the street, in school, and in your
home
Hartmann concludes that
in post-Reagan America you are only free if you are wealthy. The American
middle class is struggling just to survive because the government is too small
relative to GDP. Housing is out of price, childcare and elder care are
unaffordable, and wages are stagnant. Millions of Americans live from paycheck
to paycheck with a huge load of debt.
It doesn’t have to be
that way. Hartmann gives the examples of Canada and European countries, where “social democracy increases the freedom of working class people by ensuring
that their basic human needs are met, allowing citizens to pursue careers,
start families, and enjoy life without constant economic anxiety”.
The governments of these countries spend 45-55% of GDP
on public services; America spends about 37%.
Yes that will mean higher taxes, especially for the
wealthy. Hartman related an interview he heard years ago on TV of a wealthy
German businessman interviewed by a young American. In response to a question,
the businessman told him that his total tax rate was about 60%. The reporter
repeatedly asked him why he would put up with such high taxes. The businessman
evaded the question several times before finally answering him in a rebuking tone:
“I don’t want to be a rich man in a poor
country”.
Hartmann argues that the question of the government
being too big or too small should be reframed to: “Does our government serve
the needs of the people?”
The Trump regime is currently going through the
federal workforce slashing programs and firing workers with no thought whatsoever
of the services they are providing. They are doing this to justify giving a big
tax cut which will benefit mostly the wealthy.
This is me speaking: It will be time to reduce taxes
when the national debt is paid off, there are no children living in poverty, the
elderly and disabled receive the care they need, schools and hospitals are
adequately funded, post-secondary education is affordable, and homelessness is
history.
That, I’m afraid, will happen about the same time
that Hell freezes over, but it is a goal worth striving for.
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