Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The "Responsible" Thing

One of the common refrains from those who are emotionally invested in the fundamental goodness which can result from government interventions (social security, medicare, etc), is that they say something to the effect that "we can only right our fiscal ship if we use a mix of tax increases and spending cuts." 

In other words, nevermind the fact that the politicians have behaved with spectacular disregard for the financial solvency of the world's most powerful government.  Never mind that the politicians of this nation have a nearly flawless record for failing to prioritize and spend accordingly.  Never mind that all actions of the government are conducted according to political calculus, for the short term benefit of those in office, and politicans never have to account for the long term failure of their legislative acts.  Nevermind the fact that in cases like social security and medicare, or even something as basic as the income tax, it starts as a whisper of "we can't afford not to take this action to help our fellow man" (translation: I know I can get political credit for taking your money and spending it on someone else using the coercive power of the state, please let me do it?"), and becomes the torrents of waste we now see in these programs and in the tax code. 

Never mind all of that!  The game's all changed, we're going to have responsible far sighted government now and the first step is - let us take more of your money!!!!  We'll be good we promise!!!

Well, I was born, but I wasn't born yesterday.

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