Hood River Government

Shouting out at the wrong guy

An interesting editorial cartoon was published in a Midsouth newspaper last week, showing a FEMA worker attending to a power line that had been knocked down by Hurricane Irene.

When the bureaucrat reconnects the line, bringing electric power back to a city business district, the resurrected lights illuminate a billboard that contained the following statement:

“Government is the problem, not the solution!”

Those editorial cartoon guys sure have a knack for tweaking a nose at the most delicious moments.

As the anti-government furor reaches a zenith, along comes a disaster that demonstrates — once again — just how crucial government can be to this nation and its citizens. Government may be the horse folks like to whip, but it’s the steed that often gets us across the river when the water’s rising.

That cartoon and FEMA stepping in after the storm reveal another telling fact — some of the most vociferous public officials opposing big government are now begging for its help. This contradiction is causing friction between politicians.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a 2012 presidential candidate and a vigorous opponent of big government, recently opined that FEMA should be abolished, because it was a big waste of money.

Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy was asked on a cable TV news show to respond to Paul’s comments, and the governor was quite blunt:

“He’s an idiot.”

Connecticut suffered significant damage from Irene, and unless its citizens agree to tax themselves at an incredibly high rate in the coming years, they will need big government’s help.

Again, a graphic demonstration of how anti-government rhetoric and reality do not coalesce.

FEMA got a deserved bad rap for its pathetic response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but that was more about incapable management than the agency’s ability to come to the aid of Americans devastated by man-made or natural disaster.

Now, we have Irene’s wrath spread along the eastern seaboard. Experts say this storm will rank in the top-10 all time with regard to cost. Who, if not big government, is equipped to handle such a loss? None of the states affected have the resources to undertake a recovery.

Procellaneous: Bigger Than The Hood River Library

Note: This is an opinion piece I submitted to the Hood River News on July 7, 2010. Since then, Hood River County has had  a second referendum on the library and decided to reopen it. But, you just don't throw the doors open and shazam! the library is back. It is gradually getting there. Remember, tea partiers: destroy our public treasures and you just may have trouble getting them back. But the article isn't about the library, anyway... On January 22, 2010, Columbia River Bank (CRB) went broke. They blew all of the bank’s own money and then dipped into their customers’ accounts, taking an estimated $172 million from depositor’s checking and savings accounts they couldn’t put back. They gambled away this money on bad real estate deals. Our tax dollars are being used to pay the money back for them. I heard that banks fail because the government has programs to make poor people richer and rich people poorer. But wasn’t it banks, not the government, that loaned all that money to people who could not pay it back? Did the government force them to do that? Did poor people force them to do that? More likely, bankers made terribly risky bets they thought had the greatest potential payback, knowing taxpayers cover those bets when they lose. As far as the government abusing rich people, I have yet to hear stories of local bank executives or directors selling their houses, cars, or boats to put the money they squandered back in our accounts. Regular old taxpayers, many quite poor, do this for them. And, I heard the real tragedy of CRB going broke not was not the $172 million they took from their customers’ bank accounts, but all the money their shareholders lost. But shouldn’t people buying stock know that this is risky business, something much different than putting money in a bank account? If they don’t know that, they should. It is all part of that personal responsibility thing we hear so much about.

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