Our federal government, originally designed as small and
limited, has grown to be humongous and infinite. That process began a long time
ago, but within the memory of most Americans was the following example of what most
often happens when our government tries to help.
Back in the 70s while Jimmy Carter was president, our
government decided to help us. Well, actually it wanted to only help some of
us, and decided that “every American should be a home owner,” and then began creating
laws and programs to enable people who were previously not financially
qualified for a home loan to get a home loan. First was the Community
Reinvestment Act (CRA) that “encouraged” banks to make loans they normally
would not make, and a few years later the Clinton administration applied more pressure
to “further encourage” banks to make those loans.
Then, the government removed the barrier separating
commercial banks from investment banks, which opened the door for the bundling
of bad home loans produced by the CRA and other government meddling as
investment instruments in the mid-to-late 90s, and a few years later the
problems caused by utilizing the resources the government had provided drove
the nation into recession. It was a significant recession, but not bad enough
to produce the recovery the nation suffered thereafter, which was made much
longer and much more painful by … guess what? Government policies.
Another good story that illustrates what happens with these
helpful government initiatives was highlighted by the National Center for
Policy Analysis (NCPA) discussing a Heritage Foundation report showing that the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has become 4 times as “helpful”
today as it was during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. At first blush, this may
sound like a good thing.
Back in the 80s FEMA declared an average of 28 disasters a
year, or one about every two weeks. At that time states and localities had
primary responsibility for handling disasters, and the feds got involved in the
more serious events. But thanks to your helpful federal government during the
presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, FEMA has declared 130
disasters annually, or a disaster every 2.8 days, on average.
Heritage’s David Inserra said this growth in the involvement
of the federal government results from the Stafford Act, passed in 1998. Two
provisions of the law are at the root of the problem, one that makes the
federal government responsible for three-fourths of disaster response costs,
which is a strong incentive for states to ask for federal aid at every
opportunity. That has the added negative incentive for the states to use funds they
would have set aside for disasters for other purposes, leaving themselves
underprepared when disaster strikes.
The vague language of the bill sets a low bar for federal
assistance, requiring damages totaling only $1.40 or more per person to
qualify, and he notes that for some states the total damages needed are less
than $1 million.
This easy money for the states has not been so easy for
Americans who really need federal disaster assistance, because FEMA has been
stretched too thin in terms of both money and readiness to respond to serious
emergencies. As a result, FEMA really does not handle big disasters very well.
Think back to hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.
Stephen Horwitz of the Mercatus Center at George Mason
University explains that “[d}uring the Katrina relief efforts, the more
successful organizations were those that had the right incentives to respond
well and could tap into the local information necessary to know what that
response should be. The private sector had the right incentives and, along with
the Coast Guard, was able to access the local knowledge necessary to provide
the relief that was needed. FEMA lacked both of these advantages.”
He notes that “[b]ig-box retailers such as Wal-Mart were
extraordinarily successful in providing help to damaged communities in the
days, weeks, and months after the storm.”
Now we find millions being dumped into the effort to make it
possible for everyone to get a college education, whether they really need one
or not, including President Obama wanting to give everyone free tuition to
community colleges. What horrors await the nation when this bubble, like the
mortgage industry’s bubble, bursts? Will we see college campuses shuttered,
young people waving their newly earned college diplomas in the unemployment
line?
If government meddling in the mortgage industry was not the proximate
cause of the financial crash, it certainly made a substantial contribution. And
if the government’s takeover of disaster responses comes up so short when it is
most needed, and private sector components actually are more effective, what do
we have to do to get the government to honor the Founders’ concepts of limited
government and maximum individual freedom?
In addition to ineffective programs that sometimes cause
great harm, these encroachments by government eat away at the individual
liberty that our ancestors fought and died for, because every one of these
“helpful” ideas has components that increase dependency on the federal
government. How much longer before America will be able to join with the
nations of Europe as strongholds of socialism?
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