Posted by
Tim Blessing on Thursday, March 27, 2008 7:49:17 PM
What was the Reagan Revolution all about?
Cut Taxes, Cut Domestic Spending, and Increase Defense Spending.
Reagan succeeded on two of those points and failed on one.
What was the goal of the Reagan Revolution?
To reduce the government back to Kennedy levels in terms of its overall portion of the Gross National Product.
Johnson did a smart thing in terms of civil rights and redress of African Americans complaints was necessary.
Johnson, however, forced through Congress a lot more spending programs than were necessary.
What did this lead too in the body politic?
Reagan called it the Narcotic of Welfare.
Today, whenever there is a problem people go to the Federal Government even though on a sublimal basis they know it doesn't work.
The New Deal is Franklin Roosevelt's towering achievement best remembered as Social Security and later Medicare.
If the Federal Government deals only with National Issues that means it deals only with the big problems.
Social Security is an entrenched part of our culture and cannot be dismantled.
That does not mean the rest of the New Deal can't be dismantled.
Eisenhower started the Interstate Highway system, which is now a cornerstone of our national culture.
Other things that Eisenhower did could be repealed.
Nixon created a lot of government in his time, but why do you have the Environmental Protection Agency and a Interior Dept.
Consolidation of functions would be a way to save money, reduce government's size, and bring it more into balance with the economy.
Should the government do Medical Research?
I have to say for a small amount of government money that the National Institutes of Health does a bang up job.
Yet, should we limit ourselves to government research at all levels. The answer is no.
Government needs to become less bureaucratic, fewer layers of management, more performance measurements, and more interpersonal with the public.
Personally, I think government renovation is in order rather than continued fights on budget priorities.
Liberal Democrats say more of this and more of that.
Republicans say less of this and less of that.
Senators and Congressmen are caught in the crosshairs of both sides.
Is Congress in need of dramatic new blood?
No, I have seen this phenomenom more than once and it doesn't accomplish the goals they set out to do.
The checks and balances built into the system make it hug powerfully to history.
Therefore, to reduce government to a more appropriate size may take a generation.
If you cut people's government subsidies off immediately then they don't know what to do with their lives.
You could end programs one by one, starve them over time, or some other combination of changes.
National Issues require National Solutions
The House represents population.
The Senate represent's the individual states.
The President represent's the national interest.
The Supreme Court represent's the Constitution.
The Public lives in a Constitutional Republic rather than a Democracy.
That mean's they express themselves indirectly through voting rather than direct democracy.
No Propositions like California.