A Justice McNamara Dispatch: This Is What I Want.
I want the Federal Government to protect me, enable transportation and deliver the mail. That’s it. Nothing more. The rest is local. The Federal Government is about the ‘State’. It’s all about foreign policy, representing our military and financial interests in the world.
The Federal Government should spend zero dollars on Education, zero dollars on the Arts and zero dollars on health care. I’m willing to let the Feds handle transportation despite Amtrak and the FAA being disasters. The interstate system was built for cars to travel the country and I have no problem doing the same for rail and air, though the prospects aren’t promising, philosophically I’m fine with it.
The USPS is $5 billion in the hole despite having a monopoly on first class and other types of mail, but again, theoretically I’m ok with it. If anything has to be done domestically by the Federal Government let it be Social Security and Medicare. Now, I don’t object to either program but changes need to be made. Social Security is supplemental, it even says so in its description, but people treat it like retirement, which it isn’t and wasn’t designed to be.
I also don’t have a problem giving medical care to the elderly. If it requires me paying 2.5% instead of 1.5% of my income, I would do that. For Social Security, the retirement age needs to be raised to 70 and benefits need to be cut. And I would be willing to take that hit as well, as someone who wont get back all I paid in. I would sacrifice that if the fiscal health of the country would be better off for it.
Now that is a Federal Government I can support. Keep me safe, help me move around, deliver my birthday cards and I will pay a little more or not get some benefits back to help the elderly live comfortably. After that, get out, because the rest is local.
Justice McNamara
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Reader Comments (3)
Interesting post, but I'd have to say that much of the others need to go as well. I'd probably only leave the Interstate system. Eisenhower wisely funded it as a defense act, and it still has defense applications.
Yeh I'm not sure I totally agree with the good Justice on this one either. I don't see why the Government should be responsible for delivering the mail to be honest. There is absolutely nothing stopping a private entity from being able to perform the duties, except of course for legislation and like everything else, the smart money is on such an entity being able to provide better service in a more efficient manner and at a lower cost.
I can't say I'm theoretically adverse to some very minimal "safety net", but the problem like everything else is that government programs just have this annoying habit of growing far beyond their original purpose and scope. Reality unfortunately gets in the way of theory and good intentions quite often.
I know what you mean about the minimal safety net. The problem is that any social program becomes a Cloward-Piven plan to enslave more and more people. Being charitable as a people is complicated by Marxism.