07/15/2011 - St. Cloud Times: Your turn: Less government has a high price, by Cynthia Moothart
Your turn: Less government has a high price
By Cynthia MoothartIn his first inaugural address, Ronald Reagan stated: “Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem.” In the decades since, that applause line hardened into a philosophical belief leaving no room for the possibility that government can or should be a positive force in American life. For small-government advocates, the fact of those words is beyond dispute.
If that truly were the case, the state government shutdown would be no big thing. Heck: Problem solved. Instead, it’s resulted in catastrophic revenue losses, totaling more than $200 million since July 1.
In conceding to Republican demands Thursday, Gov. Mark Dayton did the moral thing, even if, as he stated, it’s not a good thing for our state. In refusing to negotiate despite multiple compromises he offered, Republicans forced the choice.
Through their intransigence, GOP lawmakers proved they have no interest in leading: Trumping all is their unconscionable allegiance to small-government ideology — whatever the cost, now and in the future.
And the costs will be severe. Taking into account basics such as inflation, Minnesota requires a $36.4 billion budget over the next two years to remain even with where we are today; the Republican plan represents more than a 10 percent drop in already bare-bones investment.
Unwilling to increase the income taxes of millionaires even marginally, it’s the rest of us who will make up this shortfall.
Middle-income Minnesotans already are shouldering the greatest tax burden at 12.3 percent, while those at the top of the income ladder pay down about 9 percent, and we’ll again get stuck with the bill when it comes to almost certain property tax increases the Republican budget will demand.
This vividly demonstrates the failures of zealous small-government thinking. With the fat long gone from state budgets, counties were forced to raise property taxes by $400 million since 2002 in order to do such things as educate kids, maintain hospitals and clear roads.
Small government is a shell game, simply shifting responsibility onto someone else.
Grover Norquist, the original small-government zealot, stated: “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”
As we’re seeing here in Minnesota, government indeed becomes a problem when those of a like mind also control the faucet. www.sctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011107160015
