Government should be perfectly capable

It`s ironic, isn’t it? The Democrats in Washington on any day of the week want to convince you that bigger government is better government. They want you to believe it can provide better schools for our children, even though only 69 percent of U.S. teens now graduate from high school (despite $2 trillion in federal spending since 1965). They want you to believe government can create jobs, even though nearly 30 percent, or more than 30 million, Americans are unemployed (or underemployed), and that’s after more than a trillion dollars in stimulus spending. In fact, at the current rate of job growth, it won’t be until 2022 before we return to the almost full employment rate that we had back in 2007.

And these Democrats are the same folks who believe bigger government (along with good intentions) can help the poor move from poverty to prosperity, even though there are more people on food stamps today than ever before in our country’s history— and that’s after $1 trillion in annual welfare spending (which is 250 percent more than it was just 20 years ago).

Yes, these are the same folks who feel government-run health care, which makes up almost 20 percent of our gross domestic product (or $2.5 trillion in spending), can be administered ef ciently and effectively by the same federal government that already makes $72 billion in improper payments every year to our healthcare providers.

And yes, that’s the same federal government that cancelled White House tours for students, released thousands of illegal aliens from prisons and cut back on the number of air traf c controllers, just to make a point during the sequester earlier this year.

But even though liberals have an unshakable con dence in bigger government, liberals suddenly start acting like our federal government can’t walk and chew gum at the same time whenever there’s scandal or impropriety. They de ect the importance of issues by claiming that the federal government can’t be troubled with the issue du-jour, as if their all-knowing, all-solving federal government can’t focus on more than one issue at one time.

You can tell when liberals feel threatened with scandal or impropriety because they suddenly start saying they need to be “doing the job that the American people sent them to do” or that they’re “going back to work for the American people” now.

Remember, during the Monica Lewinsky investigation? President Clinton couldn’t be troubled with such ridiculousness, since the allegations being made were “false,” and he said he needed to “go back to work for the American people.”

And then there’s White House advisor David Plouffe who said Republicans in Congress should focus more on “doing the job they were sent to do,” instead of focusing on the IRS scandal, the seizure of the Associated Press phone records by the Justice Department and the foreign policy failure in Benghazi.

You see how this works? And when Obama’s $500 billion “American Jobs Act” was in danger of not passing in Congress and was being debated by Republicans, what do you think a Democratic congressman pulled out of his talking points? You guessed it: He urged his colleagues in Congress to stop debating and to nish “the job the American people sent us here to do.”

So, instead of confronting the objection, or the underlying issue, these folks in Washington are only interested in their next election. They don’t get it, and they will use any means necessary to distract attention away from failed policies and broken promises. And while the Roman Empire kept its citizens distracted during its decline with bread and circuses Congress is aided by Americans who are kept far too occupied by royal weddings, American Idol, Justin Bieber, “Dancing with the Stars and Lady Gaga.

Our message to liberals in Congress is simple, though: You can’t have it both ways. A government that is big enough to be all things to all people can multi-task, if you really want to do the job that the American people sent you to do.

You can investigate the failure of the Obama administration’s foreign policy in Benghazi, while at the same time addressing the fact the United States will no longer be the largest economy in the world by 2016.

Congress can appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS scandal, while at the same time deal with the fact that the average American family is struggling with the rising costs for food and healthcare costs. You can investigate the Justice Department’s seizure of the Associated Press phone records and at the same time gure out how to reduce our nearly $16 trillion in federal debt.

It’s still true, in the words of Ronald Reagan, “Government is not a solution to our problem; government is the problem.” However, that “problem” can still walk and chew gum at the same time. But continuing to walk all over the American people with tired and trite distractions, should simply no longer be an option.

Louis R. Avallone is a Shreveport businessman and attorney. He is also a former aide to U.S. Representative Jim McCrery and editor of The Caddo Republican. His columns have appeared regularly in The Forum since 2007. Follow him on Facebook, on Twitter @ louisravallone or by email at louisavallone@mac.com.