The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

The Center Can Be No-Man’s Land

Posted on | January 30, 2010 | 11 Comments

by Smitty

Libertas et Memoria captures succinctly the tactical problem for the POTUS: the irresistible force of the Left, verses the immovable object of the Right, coming together as gently as a tsunami and a city for the administration.

However, the real feeling of doom in the air, in my opinion, has more to do with the opposing tectonic plates out to sea whose gymnastics provide the tidal waves. The Democratic and Republican plates progressively grind against each other, and the debt effects continue to mock any attempt to discuss reform. Cthulhu laughs.

In defense of elected officials, it is up to the people, specifically the Tea Parties, it seems, both to demand reform and support the ensuing disasters. Furthermore, what will be desperately required is forgiveness. We really can’t bicker and argue over who killed who:The political gravity will see us all enjoy a hearty *splat*. I was explaining to my colleague, a Naval Reservist and Obama voter, that incorporating any Reserve pension in retirement planning is unwise. Just expect nothing out of the Reserves or Social Security, I said. She was indignant: “They can’t fail to pay on that stuff!” My other colleague, a self-proclaimed independent, said “See, he’s telling you the same thing I did.”

Musical chairs, played properly, are a software fencepost error turned into a game. So long as we deem it morally correct to engage in deficit spending and pass on debt to the next victim, and the music is playing, life is good. Thus, until we’ve improved the moral perception, the situation remains intractable.

The Iron Law of Bureaucracy remains an ugly truth, but I had an interesting idea. What if all entitlement programs had an expiry? In Smitty USA, no entitlement program could outlast the POTUS who signed it into law. In other words, I would require a Steel Law of Bureaucracy such that, periodically, the entire organization must be scrapped. All of the databases archived, all of the staff thanked for their interest in civil service, all of the recipients re-enrolled in the follow-on program, which begins from scratch, headquartered in a physically different location. The usual 10th Amendment argument against Federal implementation of entitlements applies. However, there may need to be a series of smaller steps in the effort to unwind the NewBad Deal.

The motive for such an overtly draconian regime would be to mimic Winter. Winter is a crucial season for rejuvenating nature. Elections provide a similar turning of the compost heap called Capitol Hill. Mandating infrequent transitions to wholly new bureaucratic systems would be one way to capture that natural cycle in the Executive Branch. Otherwise, the prostate-like growth of bureaucracy remains be unchecked.

Coming full circle to the POTUS, there is little indication that the gentleman even perceives the problem, much less has the character to repudiate his past theoretical approach. This administration is the political equivalent of a Jack London story.

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