Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” – President Reagan’s first inaugural address, Jan. 20, 1981
The Republican Party establishment parades standard-bearer Ronald Reagan as the man who brought down Big Government. At some point, Establishment party leaders eventually will distribute “What Would Reagan Do?” wristbands.
Under Reagan, the growth of government slowed, but it did not stop. Aside from Reagan’s first hundred days of major tax cuts, little was done to diffuse the entitlement bomb that is menacing our country's fiscal future.
In 1981, Reagan told conservative Republicans to raise the debt ceiling “one last time.” He betrayed them. The spending spree never stopped.
Reagan talked up the limited government style, yet substance was lacking, much like Drake McHugh, Reagan's star-breaking role in the 1942 film Kings Row. “Where's the rest of me?” McHigh asked when he saw that his legs had been amputated. Reagan cut tax rates across the board early in his first term to jump-start the economy. However, Reagan did not tackle entitlements, which still are eating away at the dwindling United States Treasury, a somber reality the political class and outraged populace are just now grappling with. The federal government needs specific policy, not just politics, to fend off the economic calamities poised to take down the nation.
Where to Turn for Relief?
Speaking with voters throughout the South Bay and the rest of the 33rd Congressional District, I hear many people complaining about the waste and fraud under the Bush administration. I don’t blame them. People believe government needs to play a role in our country. I agree. Even Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has admitted that the party has lost its way. People are angry about eight years of spending under Bush along with the $5 to $6 trillion surge in national debt under President Obama. Justifiably, no one is too thrilled with the Washington establishment. Reagan’s central argument “Government is the problem” is, in itself, part of this problem. Despite Reagan's pithy wit, government is an inevitable part of the solution to the problem of Big Government Getting Bigger. James Madison, the father of the Constitution, wrote in Federalist No. 51: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.”
Instead of attacking the government, Madison focused on the root causes, the selfish nature of mankind that elects legislators who make the government bigger, both for the voters and the politicians.
Madison continued:
”In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
A discussion for limiting government cannot excoriate or exclude government, just as demonizing the rule of law in society will not engage people to behave themselves. Otherwise, the result is “Conservatism without the constraints,” or a handicapped conservatism that goes nowhere, like Reagan's character in King's Row.
Regrets? He Has a Few
Washington Post columnist George Will, an early cheerleader for the Reagan Revolution, ruefully remarked thirty years later:
“Reagan's popularity was largely the result of “his blaming government for problems that are inherent in democracy itself.”
and
“Under Reagan, Americans could live off government and hate it at the same time. Americans blamed government for their dependence upon it.”
A great speaker from his acting days and as spokesman/salesman for General Electric, Reagan framed the argument against Big Government while absolving the American people from their part in taming its gargantuan growth. Today, nearly half the people in this country receive a subsidy. This is unsustainable. We must demand that government stop the spending and start respecting the limits of finance.
A committed minority of politicians, because of their states’ rights constituents of red and blue libertarian leanings, is thwarting tax-and spend wastrel legislation. They are unjustly bearing strident mainstream media hostility as hostage- takers and terrorists, only because they demand that government start behaving itself and playing by the rules set down by Madison during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, not merely the heated anti-government rhetoric of the Republican conventions of 1964 and 1980.
We can no longer expect the government to plug along, providing for our needs while expecting someone else to pay later. Someone is us. Later is now. Chiding constitutional government, or resurrecting the hollow Reagan Revolution, will not be a deterrent. As for those who appeal for a Reagan Revival as a resurgence for fiscal discipline, they will find little in Reagan's legacy to support his impressive rhetoric. “Where's the rest of us?” will be the untimely discovery of voters, unless Republicans fuse persuasion with necessity to achieve unpopular budget-cutting action.
Arthur Christopher Schaper is a writer and blogger on issues both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A lifelong resident of Southern California, he currently lives in Torrance. He may be contacted at arthurschaper@hotmail.com, aschaper1.blogspot.com and at asheisministries.blogspot.com. Also see waxmanwatch.blogspot.com.
