Government In Action or Inaction?

SEARCH BLOG: GOVERNMENT

A few days ago, I posted "C.Y.A." which described the primary function of the Federal Government (and state governments to a lesser extent): ensuring that officials can cover their asses by scapegoating someone else and at the same time score big in the publicity department.

There is a good rule of thumb that the larger a government becomes, the more inherent waste and stupidity associated with that government. Doubt that? Then watch C-Span once in awhile.

For example, the issue of illegal immigration could be solved fairly easily by making employment impossible for illegals.

Don't go after illegal immigrants; go after employers of illegal immigrants. Felony convictions sound about right. How soon until the practice of employing illegal immigrants is stopped? It doesn't take building a 700-mile wall or employing thousands more border agents. It simply takes the stopping of the green. Don't allow employers to accept social security numbers as proof of citizenship. They are a penny a pound. Require personal histories that must be checked. Put the onus on the employer. Oh, that's too harsh! No it's not. The chaos to our communities from illegal immigration is too harsh. This doesn't go far enough.

For example, the Federal government must fund all programs it says the states must have.

Of the $29 billion in unfunded mandates for fiscal year 2004, NCSL was able to identify costs to individual states for $24.4 billion of the total. The map shown above includes individual state costs for No Child Left Behind (Title I grants to local education authorities only), Medicaid, food stamps, special education, election reform and transportation sanctions. Certain costs of No Child Left Behind and certain programs delegated to states by the Environmental Protection Agency could not be quantified on a state-by-state basis.

For example, state governments should have their spending plans reviewed by independent auditors.

I t may seem completely nuts that a state coping with an $800 million budget deficit and considering higher taxes on its citizens would trade a $1-a-year building lease for one that will cost nearly $5 million a year. And it is.

The deal OK'd this week to move the State Police headquarters to a new home being built by politically connected developers is more evidence that the governor and lawmakers are not taking Michigan's fiscal crisis seriously.

The move was approved by the Legislature's Joint Capital Outlay Committee. It will consolidate most state police operations in a new home on the banks of the Grand River in downtown Lansing. The developer is political powerhouse Joel Ferguson, a Michigan State University trustee, and his associate, Gary Granger. Annual costs to the state are estimated at $4.9 million annually.

Based on the way government works today, I think government inaction is preferable to government in action.