Congress and Ado Annie Can’t Say No

Congress and Ado Annie Can’t Say No

– By Howard Sierer –

In Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical “Oklahoma,” flirtatious Ado Annie sings “I’m Just a Girl Who Can’t Say No.” That’s only too true of almost all Congressional Democrats and when push comes to shove, too many Republicans.

Annual Gallup polls taken over the last 30 years have shown repeatedly that from 5 to 28 percentage points more Americans believe that our government is trying to do too many things as compared to those who want more. The only exceptions occurred briefly during recessions.

Gallup’s results show voters prefer fewer services and lower taxes instead of more services and higher taxes by margins of from 17 points to a dramatic 31 points in 2021.

These results have a strong correlation with political party affiliation. Nonetheless, independents were heavily skewed toward smaller government by a whopping 19 percentage points.

While these results show preferences in general, they all too often don’t translate into votes on the floor of Congress. I’m reminded of diet plans and that all-too-tempting dessert or a family budget upended by that terrific deal on a longed-for item.

Like dieters and budgeters, political scientists have long observed that Americans tend to be “ideologically conservative and operationally liberal.” For example, Social Security and Medicare are widely supported by conservatives like me (while we still hope for fiscal and efficiency improvements).

Americans rationalize this dichotomy by assuming the programs they like will be funded by cutting or eliminating programs they don’t like. Republican lawmakers are especially prone to make these vague promises knowing there is little hope they will happen. When pollsters explain the tax dollars required to implement any new program, support drops noticeably.

Lawmakers’ newsletters and press releases emphasize new programs and new initiatives they are sponsoring. Something new shows action and energy while “repairing” or cutting back an existing program is less likely to impress the majority and often sparks vocal opposition.

For example, popular retirement programs need repair before they fall into fiscal sinkholes: Social Security and state and local pensions. Sadly, little action can be expected despite straightforward fixes.

Social Security’s funding could be solved with a simple increase in the full retirement age to reflect American’s longer lives and productive working years. Pension shortfalls could be solved by adding small defined contributions for new hires. But reluctant lawmakers in both parties are loath to face the political pushback that comes with fiddling with Americans’ “operationally liberal” retirement programs.

Thirty years ago, an internationally recognized leader with over a billion followers offered this guidance on the virtues of limited government:

“Malfunctions and defects in the Social Assistance State are the result of an inadequate understanding of the tasks proper to the State.

“The principle of subsidiarity must be respected: a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order.

“By intervening directly and depriving society of its responsibility, the Social Assistance State leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients, and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending.

“In fact, needs are best understood and satisfied by people who are closest to them and who act as neighbors to those in need.

“Certain kinds of demands often call for a response that is not simply material but which is capable of perceiving the deeper human need by creating favorable conditions for the free exercise of economic activity, which will lead to abundant opportunities for employment and sources of wealth.”

It may surprise you to learn that these insights were published by Pope John Paul II in his “Centesimus Annus” encyclical letter of May 1991.

The pope’s wisdom reinforced James Madison’s thoughts in his Federalist 45: “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and indefinite.”

The approved Federal 2023 budget is $5.8 trillion, one-third greater than just two years ago. President Biden’s proposed 2024 budget is $6.9 trillion.

I’ll stick with James Madison and the pope. And I’ll support lawmakers that are willing to make the tough choices to reduce government spending and our taxes.

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