Ron Amundson’s Political Blog

The one I got last night is from an outfit called Worldview Times, sort of an offshoot of worldview weekend. Its marketed as a Christian organization, and has the support of a number of pastors… The pastors as long as they stick to the Bible I respect a great deal and have learned much from them. The problem is, once in a while it seems Jesus gets overshadowed, and the Gospel ends up replaced by questionable economic / political analysis. This is one of those times.

Case in point.

Why is this so? Why does virtually every liberal scheme result in ever-increasing public spending while conditions seem to get continually worse? There are a number of reasons:

1. The programs usually create adverse incentives. This is especially true in so-called “anti-poverty” programs. The beneficiaries find government subsidies a replacement for, rather than a supplement to, gainful employment and eventually become incapable of supporting themselves. This in turn creates a dependent culture with its attendant toxic behaviors which demand still more government “remedies.”

There is some truth in that, but it affects both parties, let me make some minor changes.

1. The programs usually create adverse incentives. This is especially true in regressive tax and corporate welfare programs. The beneficiaries find government subsidies a replacement for, rather than a supplement to, gainful employment and eventually become incapable of supporting themselves. This in turn creates a dependent culture with its attendant toxic behaviors which demand still more government “remedies.”

Imagine had the legislature not done the following:

Allowed “investment” banks to run free for alls with 40:1 leverage
Created SarOx to “protect” the investor, all the giving a blind eye to SEC violations, and penalizing the small startup
Allowed mark to model accounting or as I refer to it as mark to finger in the wind
Allowed for no bid contracts
Allowed CAFE standards to be so low, we ended up in a real mess last summer.
Subsidized farms such that big ag wags everyone’s tail, and the small farmer gets killed due to govt created price fluctuations. I’m not against farm subsidies for small entities, they play a vital role in ensuring food diversity, which is a public health concern.
Failed to regulate insurance companies, such that AIG is blowing through $30 billion every month or two, as they are now too big a monopoly to fail.
Failed to regulate broadcasters, such that a very few corporations have a monopoly on the airwaves, thus reducing diversity in programming, and encouraging an almost backdoor payola situation.
Funded the FDA at such a low level, we ended up with people dieing, whether it be contaminated peanuts, or other food contamination issues.

Next we have:

Similarly, liberals use government to promote legislation that imposes mandates on the private sector to provide further benefits for selected groups. But the results are even more disastrous. For example, weighing the laws or stacking the courts to favor unions may provide short term security or higher pay for unionized labor, but has ultimately resulted in the collapse of entire domestic industries.

And a couple minor tweaks:
Similarly, conservatives use government to promote legislation that imposes mandates on the private sector to provide further benefits for selected groups. But the results are even more disastrous. For example, weighing the laws or stacking the courts to favor highly connected investors may provide short term security or higher pay for CEO’s as well as returns for said investors, but has ultimately resulted in the collapse of entire domestic industries.

Next, being its long, I’ll just provide my modified version.

Another example is health care. The Republicans are always trying to impose backdoor benefits to insurance companies with incremental legislation. Why do you suppose American healthcare is in such crisis? Answer: the insurance business has already become too deeply involved. For example, many doctors are no longer making a decision based upon what will provide the best outcome for a patient, but more so, the insurance company is dictating to the doctor what he can or cannot do, such to maximize the insurance companies revenue stream. At the same time, insurance companies are decreasing what is covered and the amount they will pay, all hidden from the consumers view. Hospitals are closing their doors because they are overwhelmed with the burden of reduced reimbursements, no win contracts forced by HMO’s, and so much administrative overhead, it dwarfs the number of staff involved in patient care. The net result is reduced availability of care for everyone, exactly the opposite of what everyone claims to want.

There are many more, both parties are culpable in the mess we are in, its not nearly as one sided as the author portrays. Ultimately though, the downfall is due to greed and the self interest of a few. Pretty much the opposite of what Jesus would want his people to do.