HOW I SEE IT: More gov’t programs not the answer

In regard to Anita Hartke’s guest column Jan. 30 (“Send me your ideas on how to help Seventh District excel”), I don’t believe she fully grasped the reality of what’s going on in this nation.

She advocates all kinds of government solutions for our problems. The grassroots tea party movement has grown up around the nation fueled by anti-big government sentiment. Scott Brown won Ted Kennedy’s old seat running specifically against Obama’s agenda. This is especially troubling, given Ms. Hartke’s own obvious support for the president’s agenda. I cast my first legal vote in Massachusetts, and I can tell you first-hand that it’s astounding that a Republican could win that election.

More important than the party, though, is the message Mr. Brown brought. Too much lately, both parties have become the advocates of bigger, more controlling government — after all, it was President Bush who gave us unprecedented federal money in education with No Child Left Behind.

Predictably, the influx of more money into the education sector has led to worse, not better results. Since more government money equating to worse performance has been the ongoing trend since Walter Williams produced his politically incorrect “Free to Choose” PBS special in 1980, I see no reason to believe that more money will be the solution in the future.

The same effect can be seen in nearly every sector. It’s like the old Reagan saw: Government is the problem, not the solution. One need merely have a passing acquaintance with the sweeping governmental and economic reforms in New Zealand and Ireland and the resultant acceleration of their economies to see that axiom in action. Both nations scaled back government involvement in everything from education to public works, and saw immediate, dramatic and so far lasting surges in the standard of living and their ratings as some of the freest nations in the world.

These results clearly demonstrate that the solutions Ms. Hartke is looking for are best solved by energetic people given the freedom to find their own solutions. The best idea I can offer her is to stop searching for pie-in-the-sky quick fixes (like a $10,000 college tax credit!) that create short- term incentives at monstrous long-term costs. I wish Ms. Hartke well, but I do not wish her success in the search for more government programs.