A leading candidate for the presidency said recently, and I quote, “I want to get back to the appropriate balance of power between government and the market.”
Though I agree with the statement, the meaning meant is not the meaning I would intend were I saying it.
Let’s get this straight: Government has gotten way out of whack with markets. There’s too much government, which has grown ferociously in the past eight years.
The candidate in question, however, argued that we need more government taking a more active role, in part to address the “excesses” of the Bush Administration.
Puzzling. The excesses of the Bush administration have been in the area of government growth. Too much spending, too few vetoes.
Example? A new entitlement program, Medicare D, devised and pushed by the administration, now threatens to further destabilize our already over-regulated, over-subsidized health care system.
Here’s another: Mostly idiotic increases in regulation of business, in the wake of the Enron scandal, when the original trouble with Enron was a fraudulent accounting system approved by existing government regulators.
The candidate focused on Bush era tax relief, but tax cuts are not the chief problem with government today. Over-spending by Congress is.
As is weakness in presidential leadership to fight government imbalance.
Balance? Good.
More government to mess up where government has failed before? Bad.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.