Good Government, Bad Government
Posted on July 19, 2012
In many ways, the current debate that is raging between President Obama and presumed GOP nominee Mitt Romney is silly.Obama says that no small businessman is an island and that every small businessman owes his or her success to the government. Romney says that Obama’s pro-government philosophy is ridiculous and that entrepreneurs basically do it on their own.
Government, of course, has a major role in job creation.
Good government can help to foster rapid job creation.
Bad government can destroy economic growth and job creation.
Good government takes as little money from job creators as possible, fosters personal responsibility and delivers essential services that make businesses more efficient.
Bad government imposes silly regulations on business owners, wastes taxpayer money, rewards political cronies, and allows rampant corruption to steal public money.
Good government builds good roads at reasonable prices. Bad government builds bad roads at inflated costs.
Good government confronts fiscal problems squarely, makes plans for the future, anticipates crises, and has an adequate workforce to do the job.
Bad government puts off fiscal problems, raids pension funds to pay current accounts, ignores the future, is consistently surprised by crises, and has a bloated workforce that underperforms.
Good government takes on government employee unions that don’t perform, especially teachers unions. Bad government rewards government employee unions with political patronage, and cuts deal with them to feather their respective nests.
Good government has adequate oversight of the private sector to protect citizens from the crooks, con-men and shysters that are ever-present in modern society. Bad government takes campaign contributions from those crooks and shields them from prosecution.
Good government can truly provide an incredibly valuable service to the taxpayers. Bad government can truly create misery and stunt economic growth.
Indiana has good government. It has a budget surplus. It has great economic growth. It has high performing schools. It is a place where people want to live.
Illinois has bad government. It is going broke. It has high taxes, but no economic growth. The suburban schools don’t get money owed to them by the State Government and they have to lay off teachers as a result. The city schools? A complete disaster. People and businesses are leaving Illinois, despite the fact that is has great natural resources and a smart citizenry.
The debate is not between all government and no government. The debate is between good government and bad government. President Obama is trying to impose the same kind of government that made Illinois the economic basket-case it is today. I say thanks, but no thanks.