1995 Flashback -OR- Was Malaise really so bad?

Note: The following was first published in October, 1995

Mankind has lived through some serious stuff. We've passed through the age of reason, which wasn't particularly reasonable and the age of enlightenment, which by the standards of the day must have seemed positively stupefying, to reach this point in history; Congresscritters grappling with the national budget and our direction for the future. The media, for their part, has provided ample opportunity to the various factions trying to bring focus to the issues of the day. Congresscritters, experts and the various talking heads have lent their voices to the crisis which awaits a response from our country and its representatives. How will history judge our times? What moniker will historians hang on these troubled times?



By my scorecard, history's doormat, the elderly, the poor and the infirm have taken a sound thrashing in the early going. All of the judges seem to be in agreement that the crux of the problem rests in the government providing too much to this elite group of people. Consensus is building for the unpleasant task of reforming the services provided to this segment of our population. "The beast cannot be slain but it must be tamed." is the assessment. As soon as the tamers can in turn be tamed by their leadership, that taming will begin. The current posturing and rhetoric seems to be the obligatory overture to the days to come.



It's hard to consider the Carter years as a golden age for civilization in America, but in retrospect, they seem to fit nicely into this revisionist category. President Carter in his last year was grappling with a $580 billion budget that had a $59 billion deficit. Numbers like that would be welcome today, just 15 short years later when the budget sits at $1.8 trillion with the deficit numbers that seem difficult to pin down accurately. Is it insane to long for malaise? Even in 1980 there was general consensus that the budget was filled with pork, fraud and waste, ready but unwilling to be cut.



What happened? The current spin is that tax and spend liberals frittered away our national interest chasing the social welfare dreams of F.D.R. and L.B.J.. The numbers being flung far and wide indicate massive spending with little apparent benefit to either the spender or the spendee. Balancing the budget is the number one priority and rightfully so. Unfortunately, I doubt that we will ever see numbers like Carter's again. The "cuts" being so furiously fought over are an attempt to tread water at the current level. Actual dollar reductions are unlikely and so far as I know, aren't even being considered. Re-allocation, re-distribution and reformation of the available funds and programs is the order of the day.



The underlying problem is redundantly reproduced each and every day. You don't have to search long or hard to find out how redistribution and reallocation work in today's government. It was just one small item from the Associated Press, I'm sure the content won't surprise you. 200 Federal Employees, upon returning after the short budget furlough, went to Disney World at taxpayer expense. An expense of only $200,000 in the greater budget dilemma seems almost trite, nevertheless, these rangers and tour guides, who just the week before were deemed non-essential, spent a week learning how to do their non-essential tasks with a little more non-essential, four fingered cartoon-like, flair; refreshed and fully versed in subject matter such as "Goofy Nature Songs" and "Interpreting Resources Along Scenic Byways and Corridors.



The spokesperson (apologist) for this little fiasco read from the official government script. "It's a recognized training function and they take a lot back to the (insert appropriate field here). And we don't view that as a boondoggle." She went on to add that the timing was bad, that's all. If the workshop hadn't come just after the shutdown it wouldn't have stood out. After all, it had been scheduled well before the furlough.



Maybe I'm just a liberal, who won't admit that social programs don't work. Perhaps, I'm just plain ignorant about the important things government could do by freeing up dollars now being frivolously doled out to feed, shelter, educate and care for those who really need it. But then again, I might just be more likely to support that kind of reform if I knew that the two-thirds of the budget not currently earmarked for such trivial support programs was being spent in the most cost-efficient effective manner.



If it makes me a liberal (even in print, these days, the word drips with disdain) for doubting the motive behind this latest money trick, then hopefully I won't be stranded out here long. We're better than this. Whatever the final budget figures are, from my jaded viewpoint, I'd feel a lot better going into the Christmas season reading how we wasted $200,000 sending 200 poor or elderly citizens (or an opinion columnist's family and friends) down to Florida to visit with Mickey. I'd still be upset but at least the article would have had a nice accompanying photograph.