Columnist David Frum buys what Washington’s establishment is selling. Consider the seven theses of his recent screed, “Wake up GOP”:
- “Unemployment is a more urgent problem than debt.” Maybe. So what are you going to do about it — accumulate more debt to fund unstimulating stimulus packages, as mass unemployment calcifies?
- “The deficit is a symptom of America’s economic problems, not a cause.” Sure, the deficit is worse because of decreased revenues. But deficits were high before the bust, and debt was increasing. Deficits are a symptom of a governance problem.
- “The time to cut is after the economy recovers.” So why didn’t politicians — Frum’s beloved Republicans, while he was personal manservant to George W. Bush — cut spending before the bust?
- “The place to cut is health care, not assistance to the unemployed and poor.” The place to cut is over-spending everywhere. Pentagon. The medical-industrial complex. “Discretionary spending.” And start by freezing the baseline spending. And cut federal salaries across the board.
- “We can collect more revenue without raising tax rates.” Uh, maybe “we” shouldn’t raise revenues! And yet establishing a simpler, flat income tax rate probably would raise revenues, so …
- “Passion does not substitute for judgment.” Yes. And it’s about time Frum showed some of the latter.
- “You can’t save the system by destroying the system.” If the system has put America on a crash course with disaster, then that system must be replaced. With a better one.
It’s arguments like Frum’s that stand in the way.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
3 replies on “Frummious Bandersnatch”
Frum is using “the system” interchangelbly to refer both to the country and to the government. Most of our current economic problems stem from federal government overregulation and spending, taking over duties and responsibilities that belong to the states and the people. His disingenuous argeuemnt is that “the system” referring to these two separate entities is interchangable and intertwined. The disassembling of the system that prevents the government spending has the repurcussions of saving multiple dollars and jobs in the private sector for every govnernment spent dollar and job.
Sort of like them saying, “we lose money on every dollar we spend, but we make it up in volume”
Think Mr Frum has been inside the beltway too long and forgotten what things are like in the real world.
I agree with Jacob. I’d like to add that our founders never intended, in fact prohibited, government to be used to provide for the poor. This is because such programs amount to playing favorites, and immorally taking money from some and giving it to others. Government welfare is just immoral. It shouldn’t exist on those grounds alone.
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