Government isn’t the Enemy
Examples from Florida and Texas
Photo by Ken Allsup with the Oskaloosa News
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wants Federal Aid for storm-damaged Florida, and he is getting it from the Biden administration. Yet, as a freshman congressman in 2013, DeSantis voted against a similar response for New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy crushed their coastlines. President Biden has given Federal support for the victims of Hurricane Ian, just as then-president Obama extended support for the victims of Sandy.
Florida Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott sent a joint letter on September 30 to the Senate Appropriations Committee Chairs to secure funding for Hurricane relief.
The Senate moved forward with a short-term spending bill shortly after, authorizing $18.8 billion to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to respond to Hurricane Ian and future disasters on a 72-25 vote. Scott voted against it, and Rubio didn’t bother to show up for the vote. That Friday, the Democratic-led House approved the measure 230-201. Republicans overwhelmingly opposed the measure.
Florida will rebuild, but it’s because of President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats. This is one of the roles of the Federal Government, to step in when disaster strikes and President Biden is delivering, just as President Obama did. Republicans aren’t delivering and likely never will. Their ideology precludes it.
The hypocrisy of DeSantis, Rubio, and Scott isn’t the point here. The point is that Democrats see government as part of the solution to challenges like this, while Republicans have built their ideology around government being the problem. A government that doesn’t function well fits the Republican narrative and offers a rationale for underfunding it, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. It provides a rationale for tax cuts, especially for the wealthy, since in Republican Ideology-land, trickle-down economics works. Just not in the real world.
Since in the Republican worldview, Government is the enemy, regulations are its footsoldiers. The anti-regulation rhetoric of Republicans has allowed buildings to be constructed where one is inviting disaster, and without construction codes that would minimize damage. As storms become more and more intense because of climate change, and Republicans continue to stick their heads in the sand, refusing to invest in climate mitigation efforts, we can expect more irresponsibility, only worse. Investing in good government and smart regulation actually saves money. Insurance rates will skyrocket, and we will all pay for it.
Let’s look at another example. The collapse of the Texas power grid in 2021 was a conscious act by Texas Republicans. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy, a product of generations of Republican anti-government rhetoric, radical individualism, and hubris. This quote by the former Texas Governor and U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry after the collapse illustrates all three.
They chose not to prepare. It was a conscious decision not to regulate in the best interest of public safety, and people died. Tens of thousands of Texans suffered physical, emotional, and financial hardships they may never overcome. Republicans in government and company officials knew a polar vortex event would eventually come, and that the grid would be compromised, and they didn’t care. The cold snap wasn’t unprecedented. There were similar cold weather events impacting the Texas electrical grid in 2011, 1989, and 1983. Without regulations, company officials cut corners to maximize profits. That’s not a surprise--that’s what companies do, and why the government can’t be run like a business--smart government keeps businesses honest. Government should be designed for community betterment. Companies may want their communities to succeed, but it isn’t in their charter.
Of course, this anti-government ideology was ushered in long ago. The year was 1980, and President Ronald Reagan, in his inaugural address, said "Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.” With those words, the stage was inadvertently set for the Texas power grid to fail, for Republicans to refuse to help Florida rebuild, and for the continued dismantling of government by Republicans.
Democrats invest. In infrastructure, health care, disaster response, our public schools, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, child care, a living wage, mitigating climate change, and in clean air and water.
Republicans? Not so much. They don’t believe in good government and refuse to invest in it. The ghost of Ronald Reagan still haunts them. And us.
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Here we are, in alphabetical order.
The cognitive dissonance in many GOP heads must be maddening. No wonder they’re always so angry!
Spot on, Bob. You can add investment in the IRS to the list. That makes no sense to me. The current TV ad showing supposed IRS agents walking out of a cornfield to grab our wallets is one of the more ridiculous ads this season. And that’s saying something!