How Do You Like Your Government?

I have come to the conclusion that the war for political control is often waged in the middle and the battleground is the role of government.  For me, it comes down to two critical arguments:

1)      Whom do I trust least on regulating business: The private sector or the government?
2)      Are there times when I want an active government or a passive government?

With respect to the first question, I have no doubt that government can make matters worse when it over-regulates.  I also know that unintended consequences can also arise from the best of intentions.  And further I accept the sad fact that the private corporatist sector has far more influence than you and I.  That being sad, the best quote I have ever read about deregulation comes from the man who in 1978 led airline deregulation under President Jimmy Carter, Mr. Alfred E. Khan “I believe in deregulation where regulation is unnecessary, inefficient, and injurious to consumers.”  By applying that axiom it will be difficult for any free market zealot to convince me that we should allow the financial, energy, utility, food, medical device, and pharmaceutical industries, to name just a few, to regulate themselves.  Do we not have enough evidence from financial market meltdowns, oil spills, unsafe drugs, tainted foods, etc. to say the kids can’t look after themselves?  Of course, a good start would be to properly enforce the regulations that are on the books today and to force Congress to write their own laws and truly get special interests out of the picture.

As for the second question, we are fortunate to have a stable democratically elected Republic that is capable of righting wrongs and bringing its citizens and our great society forward.  And while many social conservatives, libertarians, and anti-government zealots love to cry about government waste, I challenge any of them to say we would be better off without this short list of laws an active federal government.


·         Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906

·         Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914

·         The Banking Act of 1933 (aka Glass Steagall)

·         The Social Security Act 1935

·         The National Labor Relations Act 1935

·         Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938

·         The Fair Labor Standards Act 1938

·         Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (aka GI Bill)

·         Small Business Act of 1953

·         National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956

·         The Clean Air Act of 1963

·         Civil Rights Act of 1964

·         The Social Security Amendments of 1965 that created Medicare and Medicaid

·         Air Quality Act of 1967

·         Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969

·         The Clean Air Act Extension of 1970

·         Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970

·         The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972

·         The Consumer Product Safety Act of 1972

·         The Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974

·         Clean Water Act of 1977

·         Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978

But government can also overreach and when it does it is usually related to suppression of the 1st Amendment and an overactive socially conservative mindset.  The short list below covers instances when the government fought to silence opposition by making it unlawful to speak out, protest, or publish anything remotely attacking or condemning the government’s deeds.  Thankfully the creation of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920 has countered previous tyrannical laws.  As for the social angle, anytime government has tried to impose a social restriction, usually at the behest of religious organizations,  it has been at the expense of individual freedom. Today, I think we can all laugh at the thought that birth control pamphlets in 1912 were considered pornographic and a clear violation of the Comstock Act.

·         The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798

·         Comstock Act of 1873

·         The Mann Act of 1910

·         The Immigration Act of 1918

·         The Sedition Act of 1918

·         The National Prohibition Act of 1919

·         Defense of Marriage Act of 1996

·         Act for the relief of the parents of Theresa Marie Schiavo of 2005


Well there you have it, yes I want an active government that regulates wisely because businesses cannot be trusted, but I don’t want a government encroaching on my individual liberty that is guaranteed by the Constitution. 

For the record, I support the Affordable Care Act.  While some will argue that the individual mandate encroaches on the liberty I just spoke of, I also believe that healthcare is something we are all part of, and thus you cannot exclude yourself.  Some may call that hypocritical, but they’re probably the same people who would have been against the Social Security Act and the GI Bill. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Secular American Jew and a Love for Israel

As many of you know, I have dedicated many postings to the State of Israel on a range of topics including: it’s history, the present day government, the Jewish-Palestinian question, and the region in general.   Growing up in a liberal conservative Jewish household (the oxymoron is quite common as American Jews were almost exclusively political liberals and the conservative branch of Judaism the most common) and attending Hebrew school as a kid you obviously build an affinity for the State of Israel.   I do not remember the Six-Day War of 1967, but I have vivid memories of celebrating Israel’s 25 th anniversary in 1973 and the Yom Kippur War later that year.   As a ten year old attending Yom Kippur services I saw the worried looks on my parents and the other adults at the shul as members of the congregation would periodically step outside to get news reports from car radios and transistor radios (We still drove and used electrical appliances during the high holidays, though several fam
Read more

September 10, 2001 was a Monday

Where were you on September 10, 2001?   What were you worried about?   What occupied your thoughts, worries, hopes, and dreams?   What were you excited about?   What were you interested in? September 10, 2001 was a Monday. Cindy and I were still laughing about the recent visit from the Three Amigas: Leah, Roseanne, and Valerie, and the adventures of Sedona, a certain screen door, a forgotten carrot cake, and breakfast for champions.   We were also dealing with a 1995 Chevy Blazer that seemed to be on its last legs, surviving our first Arizona summer, thinking about what to remodel in the house, dealing with the concept of a Home Owners Association, thinking that my best shot at a World Series game maybe with the fledgling Arizona Diamondbacks, and looking forward to a visit from Scott, Lori, and the boys. But what about America?   We knew nothing about a tiny town in Pennsylvania called Shanksville; Guantanamo Bay was the setting for A Few Good Men, and we still taped shows and listene
Read more

Sunni and Shia: So who are the bad guys again?

Baby faces vs. heals?   Cowboys vs Indians?   Good guy always where the white hat.   “Dig is he a good guy or bad guy?”   Bad guys always, looked, well, bad. You’re either with us or you’re against us.   Iraq, Iran, and North Korea are the axis of evil. Americans, for the most part, have a pretty simple outlook on conflict: just tell us who the bad guys are and we’ll know who to root against.   We tend to lump similar races and peoples into larger buckets, mostly due to the media’s inclination to treat us like potential Jeff Foxworthy competitors.   But the world is anything but simple and as I have written previously, the Middle East is as confusing and confounding place as you can find.   During the Iran and Iraq war of the 1980’s most Americans took the position that “…as long as they kill each other, I’m good.”   When civil war ravaged Afghanistan, we joined the side of the Mujahedeen because they were fighting the Soviets and the Soviets were our archenemy, a position they occupie
Read more