Editorials

Commentary: Legislative blitzkrieg continues

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By Gary P. Custer

Tuesday, November 29, -0001

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The stirring battle cries of "Return the power to local communities," "Get government off the backs of citizens," "Unshackle business by eliminating bothersome government agencies and environmental protection laws," "Restore family values" and "Stop subsidizing elitist art and humanities groups" are shouted through the Capitol by members of Congress and lobbyist seeking benefits for their well-healed clients.

Stirs the soul, doesn't it?

We have finally elected representatives who have no doubts about how to solve all of our nation's problems.

Eliminate crime? Simple. Reduce controls on weapons, build more prisons and fill them with people who have absolutely no chance of ever getting out.

Strengthen family values? Simple. Punish teenage mothers for getting pregnant by taking away the money needed to buy food for their children and cutback or eliminate children's food programs. Then give the savings in the form of tax breaks to families who make more money in a year than even the president of the United States.

Promote prosperity? Simple. Free business from environmental controls and eliminate the agencies that regulate businesses.

Reduce the cost of government? Simple. Eliminate the small amount of government funds that go to support the arts and the humanities. Especially eliminate public broadcasting, which they know, is an unnecessary elitist institution whose services could and would be provided better by the commercial media.

A simple solution for a complex problem has always been popular with politicians. And in an era when 20-second sound bites are the norm, our national dialogue seems to have been reduced to yelling political slogans and repeating fictional, or rare cases of people who have abused our social systems.

There are abuses, waste and inefficiency in our government — as there have been in every government that ever existed. When we walk into a voting booth we all hope that the people we vote for will help reduce the problems.

Few of us would expect that any legislative body could enact the laws necessary to make even a simple dent in our national problems in a mere 100 days. Unfortunately, some of the current congressional leaders seem to think they can — simply because they pushed the right emotional buttons on the body politic to win an overwhelming victory after years of defeat after defeat.

Their slash-and-burn approach to legislative problem-solving may get the land ready for planting quickly, but much that is valuable will be overlooked and lost forever in the process.

Maybe I am just getting old, but I see a childlike irrationality in the behavior of this new breed of politician.

Some seem to believe that "they" have sex simply to get children to get more welfare. By cutting off welfare, the politicians seem to believe that they can prevent the sex acts that cause illegitimate children. Illegitimacy is a problem, but can you prevent it by forcing a young woman to get an abortion or by punishing the innocent children who had no say in the matter?

The new breed preach the virtues of "more local control," "reducing government waste" and "less government interference." Yet they have mounted an all-out campaign against public broadcasting — an institution which epitomizes many of these virtues.

Local control? The licenses of most public broadcasting stations are owned by directly elected bodies such as the Flint Board of Education or the University of Michigan Board of Regents. Most of their financing comes from individual listeners, businesses and private foundations. Only a small part is from federal tax revenues. Yet their services are provided free to anyone who wants them — a welfare mother and her child or a General Motors executive.

Anyone who charges that funding public broadcasting is funding a service for the "rich elite" is either ignorant or guilty of the highest level of condescension. You do not have to be rich to prefer the good music, comprehensive news coverage and entertainment programs provided by public broadcasting over much of what is broadcast by commercial stations. Which would you prefer that your children watch? — "Sesame Street" or "Power Rangers"? You are probably lucky enough to be able to afford the other options offered on cable, but many families are not.

Public broadcasting is a valuable service — worth far more than the small amount it gets from the federal government. Yet, inconsistently, the new breed of politicians wants to end all federal financing.

Although I do not agree with their reasoning, I have to agree with their conclusion because public broadcasting is a national treasure too valuable to be left at the mercy of transient Washington politicians.

Congress was once a "deliberative body." But, flushed with the victories of their 100-day legislative blitzkrieg, those in power seem to be determined to let nothing, most of all reason, prevent them from achieving their political goals.

GPC

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