Government cannot give to someone what it has not first taken from someone else

During a recent conversation with one of my decidedly liberal friends, she mentioned that one of the main things she’d like to see from the federal government was a balanced budget.

I thought this was rather curious coming from a liberal, but it’s actually become somewhat of a stealth issue on the left because of President Bush’s poor record on it. However, liberals I believe misjudge its unpopularity among conservatives. It has alienated a decent faction of the conservative base because deficits usually denote rampant federal spending. Liberals have never been much for reigning in federal spending (unless of course it has to do with the military) so it can be assumed that their criticisms of the deficit are that the government doesn’t raise enough revenue.

Thus, the conservative solution to the deficit would be to slash government spending. The liberal solution would be to raise taxes — or dissolve the military. Since the vast majority of Americans react to tax increases much in the way that potassium reacts with water (Chemistry? Anyone?) and there don’t seem to be any (serious) calls to disband the military, it seems that a any attempt to balance the government is going to have to come from substantial decreases in spending.

To be fair, one of the major problems I’ve had with the Bush administration is the apparent disregard for fiscal discipline. But my, and I think many other conservatives’, grievances come from the fact that massive deficits denote woeful inefficiency.

As far as deficits go, there is a substantial amount of debate in the economic community as to whether deficits matter at all to the economy. I would venture a guess that they do not. Under Reagan, we had even larger deficits than we do now (in terms of percentage of GDP) and the economy survived. There’s no reason to believe that the same won’t happen this time around.

The main point of contention, at least for me, regarding the massive deficits is that the government seems to have no desire to handle our money responsibly. One of my favorite quotes from Ronald Reagan is: “Government is like a baby — an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.”

The Republican debate over government spending has veered too far toward the question of ‘will it work?’ rather than the more important question of ‘is it the government’s job?’. Because of this, the federal government has attempted to take on far too many responsibilities in which it really has no business. And in typical government fashion, it has screwed them up.

As evidenced in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the government cannot and should not be trusted to efficiently provide for citizen’s most basic provisions. More importantly, it’s not the government’s job to do so.

As it’s often been said, the government powerful enough to give you everything you want is powerful enough to take away everything you’ve got. Now, this argument is often used by libertarians to warn against potentially oppressive governments. I’m using it to warn against inherently incompetent ones.

Those who rely on the government for their basic provisions do so at their own peril and likely to their own detriment. Not because government is hostile or even oblivious, but simply unable. That is to say, the government might not deny help out of malice or indifference, but simply because it is not able to provide it — but help is denied all the same.

Many would argue, particularly on the left, that it is not the institution of government, but rather those running it, that causes the incompetence. But I don’t believe the two can be separated. I suppose theoretically there could be a perfect government — impervious to corruption, able to prevent unintended consequences and able to create the necessary infrastructure — but theoretically America could grow the world’s supply of oranges in Alaska. It’s just not going to happen.

The government should get back to its actual job — building roads, paying police and firemen, maintaining the military and making sure the economy doesn’t fall apart. Otherwise, give us our money back and let the free market take care of everything else. That’ll balance the budget.