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445 lines
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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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IS THIS AN UNTAMPERED FILE?
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This ASCII-file version of Imprimis, On Line was
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packaged by Applied Foresight, Inc. (AFI hereafter).
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Every AFI-packaged ASCII version of Imprimis is
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distributed in an "-AV protected" ZIP file format.
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"AV" is the authenticity verification feature provided
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to registered PKZIP users, which Applied Foresight,
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Inc., is. If you are using the MS-DOS PKUNZIP.EXE
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program written by PKWARE Inc. and do not see the "-AV"
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message after every file is unzipped AND receive the
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message "Authentic files Verified! # JAA646 ZIP
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Source: Applied Foresight Inc. (CIS 71510,1042)" when
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you unzip this file then do not trust it's integrity.
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If your version of PKUNZIP is not the PKWARE-authored
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program (for instance, you are running a non-MS-DOS
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version), then this message may not be displayed.
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Trust only genuine AFI-packaged archives ... anything
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else may be just that: ANYTHING ELSE.
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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Imprimis, On Line -- October, 1992
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Imprimis, meaning "in the first place," is a free
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monthly publication of Hillsdale College (circulation
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360,000 worldwide). Hillsdale College is a liberal arts
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institution known for its defense of free market
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principles and Western culture and its nearly 150-year
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refusal to accept federal funds. Imprimis publishes
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lectures by such well-known figures as Ronald Reagan,
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Jeane Kirkpatrick, Tom Wolfe, Charlton Heston, and many
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more. Permission to reprint is hereby granted, provided
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credit is given to Hillsdale College. Copyright 1992.
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For more information on free print subscriptions or
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back issues, call 1-800-437-2268, or 1-517-439-1524,
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ext. 2319.
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------------------------------
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"Why 'Good Government' Isn't Enough"
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by Alan L. Keyes, Former U.N. Special Ambassador
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and President,Citizens Against Government Waste
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------------------------------
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Volume 21, Number 10
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Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan 49242
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October 1992
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------------------------------
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Preview: Why, despite all our efforts to reform
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Congress, control spending, reduce taxes and pay off
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the national debt, are we in worse shape than ever?
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Alan Keyes argues that we have relied too much on
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politicians and too little on our own initiative.
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We need to restore stringent limits on Washington,
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D.C. Two hundred years ago, the Founders knew that
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government was a threat to liberty. Prophetically, they
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warned future generations not to grow too dependent on
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it.
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Ambassador Keyes spoke at Shavano Institute for
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National Leadership seminars last May in Cincinnati,
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Ohio and this month in Pebble Beach, California. To
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order audio or video tapes, please call 1-517-439-1524,
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ext. 2319.
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------------------------------
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The national debt reached three trillion dollars in
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March of 1990. But that wasn't all of the bad news:
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experts predicted that within five months it would pass
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the three and a half trillion mark. Think about that
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for a moment: It took the entire history of our nation-
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-over two centuries--for the debt to reach three
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trillion dollars and five months later we were told we
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could expect an increase of another half trillion. In
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1992, the debt will reach four trillion dollars.
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How the Debt Adds Up:
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A Billion Here, a Billion There
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Can you recall how a rocket shimmers as it leaves the
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ground and then starts to streak into the sky so fast
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that it is impossible to follow with the naked eye?
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Well, that is our national debt. It is well past the
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shimmering stage, and it is streaking out of sight.
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Americans have every right to be frightened and angry
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about this. The debt is not an abstraction. It is real,
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just like a rocket. But our politicians have been
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dealing with big numbers for so long that they seem to
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have forgotten. It is nothing for them to routinely
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round off numbers to the nearest million or billion
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dollars.
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I know this from personal experience. I once had a
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lowly position at the State Department as assistant
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secretary for international organizations. My office
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dealt with the U.S. contribution to the United Nations
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and, as this amounted to something less than a billion
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dollars a year, it was regarded as a drop in the
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bucket. We simply did not enter upon the radar screen
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of serious government. Nonetheless, the higher-ups
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tried to make it easy, so by the time budget and
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accounting memos got to us, thousands of dollars and
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very often tens of thousands of dollars would have
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disappeared from sight in the rounding-off process.
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This is the rule for virtually all federal
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agencies and departments. Collectively, they deal every
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day in hundreds of billions of dollars. So they are not
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rounding off just thousands and tens of thousands; they
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are rounding off tens of billions of dollars. The
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people in individual offices who are making budget
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decisions never see the missing figures, and in truth
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they never think about them much.
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In this context it becomes very easy to forget
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that a "hundred" in the memo you're reading represents
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a hundred million. Why, that's not even one billion,
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you might say once you had been in Washington awhile.
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You get into that habit. And it is a habit that reveals
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a great deal about the transformation that takes place
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when an individual spends a lot of time working in and
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around the federal government.
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But most voters think, "Ah, if only we could send
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really good people to Washington, they won't develop
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those habits. And then, finally, we'll have good
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government." It is true that sending good people to
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Washington is essential to good government. I do not
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for one moment want to minimize the importance of this.
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But neither good people nor "good government" are
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enough. We send good people to Washington all the time,
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and they hail from every state in the Union. They are
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competent, successful people loaded with integrity,
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courage and common sense (at least before they get to
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our nation's capital). We have even had "good
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government" as it is defined by those in
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government. Why, then, is Washington such a mess?
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Out-of-Control Spending
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and Entitlements
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One obvious reason is the sheer size of the federal
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budget. In January of 1992, President Bush unveiled his
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proposed budget for the 1993 fiscal year. As the Wall
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Street Journal noted, the Democrats in Congress
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pronounced it "dead on arrival." It was just too low.
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What was low to them? The total (rounded, of course, to
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the nearest hundred million dollars) was
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$1,516,700,000,000--one trillion, five hundred sixteen
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billion, seven hundred million dollars. That is more
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than 25 percent of the nation's GNP.
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And what about off-budget entitlements, the monies
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the federal government is already committed to spend
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but that the public never hears about? These amount to
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$4-6 trillion in civil and military pensions, Social
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Security payments and other unfunded liabilities.
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Regulation and Taxes:
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The Power to Destroy
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But that is not all. Government regulation is another
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kind of hidden expenditure that never shows up in any
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proposed budget. The National Chamber Foundation
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reported in mid-1992 that regulatory costs passed along
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to the consumer in the form of higher prices total $400
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billion each year, or an average of $4000 per
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household.
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As if that weren't enough, direct taxation, added
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to Social Security payroll deductions for employers and
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employees, is now a staggering 52-60 percent of the
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GNP. These figures were virtually ensured in 1990 when
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President Bush retreated from his personal tax pledge
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and cooperated with Congress to pass a so-called
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"deficit reduction package." The price was $200 billion
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(to date) in new tax increases. The outraged American
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public was assured that these would be solely devoted
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to reducing the deficit and that there would be
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significant spending cuts at all levels.
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But many people were skeptical. I, for one, wrote
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at the time that the more we heard them talk about
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deficit reduction in Washington, the less of it we
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should expect to see. Words are a distraction from
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deeds in Washington. And the skepticism proved to be
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well founded. Congress slid out from under the Gramm
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Rudman deficit reduction law and ever since has been
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producing the largest deficits in American history:
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$280 billion in 1991 and $400 billion in 1992.
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One of the interesting sidebars to this story involves
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the "luxury tax" which was a minor part of the deficit
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reduction package. This new tax ended up literally
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crippling the boat-building industry. It also led to
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massive layoffs, putting more than thirty thousand
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people on the unemployment rolls, and adversely
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affected dozens of other related industries.
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Ironically, the luxury tax proved to cost more money
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than it raised in tax revenues. It should remind us
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that the power to tax is the power to destroy.
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Government Waste
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Then there is the huge problem of government waste. In
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1990, the Comptroller General of the General Accounting
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Office estimated that the federal government wastes
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$180 billion annually. At the time, this was enough
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money to fund the state budgets of forty-eight out of
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the fifty states. And, since the GAO only watches what
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Congress tells it to watch, we can only imagine the
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waste that goes unreported.
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Here is one example uncovered by Citizens Against
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Government Waste. The U.S. Navy regularly sinks old
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ships in its artificial-reef-and-sink program.
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Thousands of items are left on board, from mattresses,
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pots and pans to heavy equipment and machinery. A
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congressman wrote to the Navy Department sensibly
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pointing out that these could be salvaged. The Navy
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replied loftily that the $57 million involved didn't
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justify the effort. It makes you wonder: What amount
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would justify the effort? A hundred million dollars?
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Apparently not at the Defense Department's
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Logistics Agency, which spent $250 million putting in
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an elaborate computer system that was supposed to help
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it keep track of its purchases and prevent it from
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acquiring unneeded inventory. But, according to a GAO
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survey, it ended up purchasing $3.5 billion in unneeded
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inventory anyway, including a thirty-three year supply
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of size 12 women's blouses. (We couldn't have begun to
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use up that supply of blouses even if all of the
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service personnel that we had sent to the Persian Gulf
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had been women who wore size 12.)
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It's Our Money
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This kind of story seems pretty funny, until you
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remember whose money is going to waste. I was doing a
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radio interview recently when a listener called in to
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complain about the savings and loan scandal. He went on
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for five minutes about what an awful travesty it was.
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Every now and again I would mutter encouragingly so
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that he would realize that I was a receptive audience.
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Finally, he concluded by saying that the one thing he
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really didn't understand was why "we, the American
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taxpayers, have to foot the bill. Why don't we just let
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government do it?"
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It's our money, whether it is tens of billions
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that will be spent on bailing out savings and loans, or
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$57 million wasted by the Navy, or $3.5 billion in
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unneeded Defense Department inventory. But we--and
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those good people we keep on sending to Washington--
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have made the same mistake as the radio caller. Time
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and time again, we have been content to "let the
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government do it."
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Think about what our money is. Our money is our
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children's education. It is the roof over our heads. It
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is the ability to think ahead to years into the future,
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to plan what we might do, for ourselves, our children,
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our community and our nation. It allows us to feel both
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the burden and the privilege of responsibility. Our
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money is the basis of our ability to translate our
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will, our choices and our values into action. In a real
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sense, it is the foundation of self government and of a
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free society. And the more that our money is removed
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from our control, the less responsibility we exercise,
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the less freedom we enjoy.
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It is not that we send bad people to Washington
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who are doing bad things. True, there are some who are
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abusing their positions, but most are simply using them
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in ways that come perfectly naturally. We put them in a
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system where success depends not upon the results
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produced but upon how much money is controlled and how
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many people are commanded, so we shouldn't be surprised
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that their greatest interest in life is controlling
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more money and commanding more people.
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Nor should we be surprised that they help maintain
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the very network of political and bureaucratic
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patronage that they were elected to fight. They try
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their hardest not to roll back big government, but to
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"make it work." In short, our congressmen and senators
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are no longer our representatives; they are sales
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agents for "good government," i.e., government with
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ever-expanding power over the lives of you and me and
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our children.
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The Flawed Nature of Government
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The disjunction of interest between us and the people
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we send to Washington doesn't arise because of one
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particular circumstance. It has become endemic to the
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system. Even if all the problems I have outlined were
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solved, we still cannot elect good people, send them
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off to Washington and expect them to do good things for
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us.
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America's Founders warned as much. At the
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Constitutional Convention in 1787, annual elections
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were seriously considered as one possible method of
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keeping a tight rein on the nation's representatives,
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and at the time most states handled their own elections
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this way. The attitude was: "We must keep a constant
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and watchful eye on our representatives and curb the
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worst excesses of government." It was not: "Once we
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elect worthy public servants, we will trust them to do
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good things with government."
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The Founders knew that, worthy public servants
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aside, government by nature tends toward excess. It is
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a necessary evil to provide for the common defense, to
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promote the general welfare, to do those things as
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President Lincoln later said that cannot be done by
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individuals and enterprises singly. There may be times
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when we have to use this instrument, just as doctors
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were once wont to include small amounts of arsenic in
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their prescriptions, but massive doses can be fatal.
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And, whatever may be our good impulses as a
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people, those impulses alone are incapable of
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controlling the fundamental tendency of government
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toward excess and abuse. Contrary to what another
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President, Jimmy Carter, promised, we shall never have
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a government that is as good as its people, and we
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should never wish for one.
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What is self government about, after all? What is
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this society about? They certainly are not about
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producing a utopia through the instrument of the state.
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Even if government could produce all that it promises,
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we would not want those results on the terms they are
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offered. They are terms that require that we surrender
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a good that is more important than good results: our
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freedom to make choices. We should still have enough
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pride in ourselves as individuals and as a people to
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want to shape our own destiny.
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The Return to Individual
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and Local Responsibility
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As citizens empowered to govern ourselves we should
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also be willing to reassert our role on a community
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||
|
|
level. And it is high time we did so. In the course of
|
||
|
|
the last fifty years there has not been one new local
|
||
|
|
government incorporated in the United States. The life
|
||
|
|
blood of this system is drying up.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
When Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about America in
|
||
|
|
the 1830s, he tried to explain what he thought was
|
||
|
|
responsible for its astounding success. One of the key
|
||
|
|
factors he pointed to was the vitality and primacy of
|
||
|
|
government at the local level. Government at the local
|
||
|
|
level is the intersection between private enterprise
|
||
|
|
and government power--where the latter remains to some
|
||
|
|
degree answerable to the former. At the state and
|
||
|
|
federal levels the primary interest of government is
|
||
|
|
government. The people become merely the servants of
|
||
|
|
its appetites.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
We must return as much power as possible to
|
||
|
|
individuals and to local government. For starters, we
|
||
|
|
need term limitations and a properly worded and
|
||
|
|
conceived balanced budget amendment. (It is not enough
|
||
|
|
to tell Congress that it must balance the budget. Left
|
||
|
|
to its own devices, Congress will balance the budget on
|
||
|
|
the backs of the taxpayers and/or by creating more and
|
||
|
|
more off-budget entitlements and regulations.)
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
And we citizens have to become our own watchdogs
|
||
|
|
once more. We need taxpayer commissions to give
|
||
|
|
critical scrutiny to the reports of government watchdog
|
||
|
|
agencies like the GAO and to do some investigating of
|
||
|
|
their own. (Right now, we are spending millions of
|
||
|
|
dollars on reports that tell us how the government is
|
||
|
|
wasting our money when those reports themselves are a
|
||
|
|
primary example of waste because nothing is done about
|
||
|
|
them, or because they are deliberately slanted to
|
||
|
|
please the agencies and departments they are
|
||
|
|
evaluating.)
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
We also have to hold government accountable for
|
||
|
|
spending our money. Politicians and bureaucrats talk a
|
||
|
|
lot about "government resources," but they are ours.
|
||
|
|
Like greedy guests sponging off their host in a swank
|
||
|
|
restaurant, they are reading off a menu with no prices
|
||
|
|
when they plan new budgets and new programs. But we are
|
||
|
|
the host. We foot the bill. We need to insist on seeing
|
||
|
|
all the prices up front.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Revitalizing local government, term limitation,
|
||
|
|
taxpayer commissions, fiscal accountability--these are
|
||
|
|
practical and realizable goals. But there is nothing
|
||
|
|
that can be done to reform the system that will
|
||
|
|
substitute for the grass-roots mobilization of people
|
||
|
|
around the country. For our government is "of the
|
||
|
|
people, by the people and for the people," and we must
|
||
|
|
not let it perish.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
------------------------------
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Alan L. Keyes has served as assistant secretary of
|
||
|
|
state, U.S. vice consul in India, resident scholar at
|
||
|
|
the American Enterprise Institute, interim president at
|
||
|
|
Alabama A & M University, consultant to the National
|
||
|
|
Security Council, special ambassador to the United
|
||
|
|
Nations Economic and Social Council, and president of
|
||
|
|
Citizens Against Government Waste. A Harvard Ph.D., he
|
||
|
|
has written for the Wall Street Journal, Policy Review
|
||
|
|
and other publications and is at work on two books, the
|
||
|
|
first on self government and the second on diplomacy
|
||
|
|
and strategic thinking. Currently, he is a candidate
|
||
|
|
for the U.S. Senate in Maryland.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
###
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
|
||
|
|
End of this issue of Imprimis, On Line; Information
|
||
|
|
about the electronic publisher, Applied Foresight,
|
||
|
|
Inc., is in the file, IMPR_BY.TXT
|
||
|
|
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
|
||
|
|
|