The schizophrenic tendencies that remain endemic within
the American electorate became abundantly clear in new Pew Research polling
that demonstrated the nation’s love/hate relationship with the federal
government.
Pew found that only 19 percent of Americans have a lot of
trust in government in a general sense. Yet majorities support government’s
role in a whole host of functions, such as protecting the environment, ensuring
food and medicine safety, maintaining infrastructure, and so forth. Medicare
and Social Security endure as untouchable offerings from Washington. In
addition, majorities say the government does a good job at supplying these
things to the populace.
in four Americans believe that the government is “the enemy.” Pew Research Center discovered that 27 percent
of registered voters say they think of government as an enemy, up 8 points
since 1996.
The findings suggest that nearly six in 10 voters feel
frustrated with the government, while 22 percent feel angry and 18 percent feel
“basically content.”
Well, yes, in a very American way.
scientist John Sides has confirmed this age-old conundrum about our
politics: “Even if Americans don’t trust the government, they still want the
government to do a whole bunch of stuff.”
When it comes to the proper role of government, there’s a
fair amount of consensus among Republicans and Democrats (see chart below). But that
consensus breaks down on ensuring health care and helping poor people, areas in
which Democrats overwhelmingly support a governmental role and the GOP does not,
the Post reported.
sums it up:
“The Pew poll shows a majority of Republican supports an
income safety net for the elderly. This could be partly because the GOP base is
older, and partly because Social Security has been around since the 1930s and
is broadly popular.
“It could also be partly because social insurance for the
elderly is seen as a program that is there for everyone, since everyone will
get old one day (unless of course premature death intervenes), whereas
government health care and aid to the poor benefit specific groups.
“Democrats
tend to view these latter programs as promoting the general welfare, because
they think helping such people benefits society overall and that everyone is
ultimately vulnerable to losing access to health care or falling on hard times
— and thus to needing help in those areas. Republicans obviously don’t agree.
“This core difference — rather than a simplistic
government-is-either-good-or-bad frame — helps illuminate a fair amount of the
ideological conflict that has marked the Obama era.”
Efficiency, effectiveness is key
should be playing a more pragmatic, nonpartisan role as stewards of the federal
government. Efficiency and effectiveness must stand as the vanguard for our
representatives and senators.
Before you add or expand any new programs, before the
president issues broad executive orders, before Congress issues any new tax
credits or loopholes, the focus should be on making government better. Better
in the sense that the countless federal programs and agencies and tax code minutiae
and procurement practices and White House executive orders should serve as the
main focus of the House and Senate.
The most disturbing aspect of all this is that the
General Accountability Office provides Congress with a steady stream of
internal investigative reports on how well the government is working. Yet, few
of these GAO studies garner immediate attention or action on Capitol Hill.
government. The far left says government would work much better if it just had
a lot more funding, meaning tax dollars.
Certainly changing circumstances – ISIS aggression is at
the top of this list – deserve the full attention of Capitol Hill. But gaining
the confidence of the American public by endlessly scrutinizing the bureaucracy
and public-sector protocols should remain at the top of the day-to-day list of
priorities.
According to Pew polling, the majority of Americans feel
the federal government has room for serious improvement, with 59 percent saying
the government needs “very major reform.” Only 37 percent of voters felt that
way in 1997.
The ‘numbers game’ holds back GOP
problematic, 13 percent mentioned Congress, while 11 percent named politics.
More than a third (35 percent) of Republicans believe the
federal government is the enemy. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the
survey is that independents are right in line with the GOP, as 34 percent of independent-minded
voters believe the same.
The poll found that half of all Democrats view the
government as a friend and only 12 percent see it as the enemy. If we’re
grading on the Bell Curve, these Democrats are on the leftward fringe.
Other findings include that few think the government
is run for the benefit of all, and that it is viewed as wasteful and
inefficient. Reflecting the growing cynicism out there in the electorate, about
three in four Americans say the federal government is “run by a few big
interests” and 57 percent say the “government is almost always wasteful
and inefficient.”
What this poll also clearly points out is that the tea party
types and the libertarian-leaning Republicans who want to substantially chop
the government down to size, even eliminating entire federal departments, represent
the fringe. Their retrograde politics appeals to a small element on the far
right.
numbers game,” in which I explained that conservative Republicans could not win
their battle against federal programs. One key reason for that futility is that
when the GOP talks about cutting spending and taxes, the two don’t correlate
from a populist, political perspective.
Republican lawmakers can cut or eliminate numerous
programs and agencies and the taxpayer would barely notice the difference at
tax time. Experts who have created so-called tax calculators – simple breakdowns
of where an individual’s tax dollars are spent – have borne this out.
offered a breakdown of a typical middle class family’s tax bill. What their tax calculator found, not
surprisingly, was that the average household pays most of its federal taxes to
support popular programs such as Medicare and Social Security, the Pentagon and
veterans benefits.
In fact, Third Way found that a family earning $50,000 a
year pays less than $1 per week for each of these government services: Customs and Border Protection, special
education, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), National Forest Service, FBI,
foster care and adoption, NASA, the entire Agriculture Department, employment
and training programs, the entire worldwide U.S. diplomatic corps, foreign aid
to allies, mass transit, National Science Foundation, all Native American
programs, and the entire Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
doing away with all of these very specific services.
so frustrated with Washington knew that each of these efforts cost them pennies
per day, they might place a high priority on Congress keeping it that way.
Our country does a horrible operation when it comes to taking care of its senior citizens. Mass Warehousing of humans till they die is a piss poor solution.