Author: Aaron Weber

People always complain about taxes, after all, and about “Big Government.” Hey, who was it that said that “Next to being shot at and missed, there is nothing in life so satisfying as a tax refund?” But it’s hard to cut out portions of Big Government that are helpful, such as, oh, Medicaid, or Medicare, or disaster relief, or Superfund money to clean up toxic waste dumps, or… gee, what part of it did you want to cut?

So, they’re starting with the taxes, because that’s the easy part. It’s certainly true that the federal tax code is enormous and overcomplicated and a pain in the ass. The federalist/state’s rights/libertarian faction of the GOP is raising that anti-tax banner high, because it’s easy to raise. The cuts in services come later, when they say, I’m very sorry, but we just have to do this. They don’t get a banner. Maybe someone else will have to do it. A Democrat, if they’re lucky.

(As far as I can tell, the puritanical/religious/authoritarian faction of the GOP is going along because they’ll be able to have greater control over states individually than over the federal government as a whole, so they can promote their agenda where they’re stronger and leave New York and California under interdict, as it were.)

In other words, what we’re seeing is conflict between the people who say “The United States is” and the people who say “The United States are.” Remember, in the early days of this nation, a seat in the US congress was often given up for the opportunity to serve in a state congress, which was considered much more honorable. Some people want to go back to that.

Maybe there are things that a decentralized government could do better. In fact, I’m sure there are things that we ought to leave to the states rather than to the feds. But a lot of federal government services just couldn’t work without being federal. Corn, sugar, textile and steel subsidies, for example. The right has pushed them through for now, but they’ll go away (and in my opinion, they should be repealed anyway) if we decentralize agricultural and industrial policies.

Think about disasters. I doubt New Jersey really wants to pay for Florida storm damage, or that Nebraska wants to pay for California earthquakes. Disaster relief as a federal project means that the US government can spread the risk more evenly. Yes, you could use insurance and let the private sector reinsurance companies handle it, but these kinds of risks are often uninsurable. The federal government can take those risks because it doesn’t have to turn a profit, and it can balance them to some extent because they don’t all happen at once.

Another of the problems we’d face is that people and businesses keep moving around, and that some of the taxes in wealthier parts of the country help poorer parts out. Individual saving/pension accounts will help, a little, but not as much as the Bushies claim. The entitlements budget will not merely be shifted to the states: it will be shifted unequally and much of it will get dropped. You’ll see the poor states get poorer, and we’ll see the return of conditions from before Johnson’s War on Poverty. Hell, you’ll see it go back to before the New Deal, which is a lot of what the right is trying to do.

And what about environmental policy? Well, I’m sure the GOP would love to just get rid of it entirely. But be serious: this is something that’s difficult between nations (all that US smog killing Canadian trees, for example, or (ahem, correction 4/15, thx. Alejandra) US-owned factories moving to Mexico and polluting both countries, then using the vagueness of international law to protect themselves). And we’re talking about dismantling the federal infrastructure and handing it back to the states?

“Well Ms. Jenkins, I’m sorry your child was born with six legs and no anus, but the trichloroethane factory next to your house is actually across state lines in New Jersey, where it complies with regulations!”

Even if you disagree with the actual regulations, it’s usually best to have a single set, rather than several dozen. Alcohol laws in the US are ridiculous and have begun to damage the wine industry’s growth because it’s illegal to ship directly from vineyards to customers. The FCC has just ceded significant power to states, over objections of telecom companies, large and small.

I suppose I’m a Europhile and a Creeping Socialist, but I think that Europe, despite the mistakes of its Stability Pact, has the right idea: greater unity, rather than less unity. I’m not advocating a command economy by any means. If anything, I’m suggesting less regulation: instead of fifty sets of rules to abide by, we should have just one. Go ahead, call me crazy. I prefer to think of myself as someone who believes in common sense economic policy aimed at the creation of wealth, combined with social policy aimed at making sure everyone gets a fair deal.

Maybe that means I pay more in taxes than I would like. Well, I voted against a reduction in state taxes this November, because I know that despite all the graft and cost overruns in the Big Dig, my taxes do good things for this state. I am proud to be a tax-paying citizen, because I know that, even though I don’t agree with the way a lot that money is spent, the United States is a better place because I’m paying my damn taxes.