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Townhall
Shutdown
Theater
by
John Stossel
Oct
09, 2013
Government
wants you to play a role in the "shutdown" of the federal
government. Your role is to panic.
Republicans
and Democrats both assume that shutting some government is a terrible
thing. The press concurs. "Shutdown threatens fragile economy,"
warns Politico. "Federal workers turn to prayer," laments
The Washington Post.
If
the public starts noticing that life goes on as usual without all 3.4
million federal workers, we might get dangerous ideas, like doing
without so much government. Politicians don't want that.
They'd
rather have us worry about how America will cope
President
Obama gave a speech where he actually said we need to keep government
open for the sake of people like the person working for the
Department of Agriculture "out there helping some farmers make
sure that they're making some modest profit," and the Department
of Housing and Urban Development "helping somebody buy a house
for the first time."
Give
me a break. Farmers don't need bureaucrats to teach them how to make
a profit, and Americans can buy first homes without HUD helping a
chosen few. Americans would make more profit and afford better homes
if they didn't have to spend a third of national income on federal
taxes.
Bureaucrats,
acting like bullies, protest the partial closures by doing things
like cutting off access to public parks -- even privately funded
ones. Federal cops block access to outdoor war memorials and much of
Mt. Rushmore. They block access to motels and order people out of
private homes that happen to sit on federal land. The Washington Free
Beacon reports, "The closure of a Virginia park that sits on
federal land, even though the government provides no resources for
its maintenance or operation."
This
is shutdown theater.
It's
similar to the fake "austerity measures" in other
countries. We're told that Europe's slow economic growth is a result
of "austerity" embraced by European governments.
But
there hasn't really been any austerity. England, where a
"conservative" government is in charge, increased
government spending by 4 percent.
"Austerity"
in Greece -- supposedly so drastic that the public has little choice
but to riot in protest -- meant changes like reducing mandatory
severance pay to one entire year (instead of two!).
In
the U.S., Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) told CNN the federal government
has cut so much spending that there's just nothing left to cut: "The
cupboard is bare! There's no more cuts to make!"
What?
The federal government spends almost 4 trillion dollars! The
government cupboard overflows! We fund entire cabinet departments
that are worse than useless. The Labor Department interferes with
actual labor. Commerce would flow more smoothly without Commerce
Department bureaucrats channeling money to their cronies.
The
government hasn't cut spending -- it never does. After the last
shutdowns, politicians even voted to award retroactive pay to
government workers who didn't work. Bet they do it again this time.
The federal government remains the biggest employer in the country.
President Obama says so with pride.
Read
the rest of the article at Townhall
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