HaFo Defends Big Government On Meet The Press

By Kleinheider Posted on April 19, 2009 at 9:22 pm

The transcript of Junior’s appearance on the Sunday chat show:

Spending is large, but what is the alternative? Government’s playing the role of the, the, the, the, the financial investor of last resort, the spender of last resort. We, we fought this, we fought this battle for many years in this country. Think if we’d decided not to pass the Servicemen Readjustment Act back in 1944 called the GI Bill. It was an enormous expenditure. You sent eight million veterans to college, you provided one year of unemployment compensation and you ensured they could buy a home. The impact that had on the nation’s economy going forward, educating that greatest generation, has been enormous. Think if Eisenhower’s national interstate, the highway system would not have passed. It cost $425 billion in real day terms. The impact it’s had on commerce, prosperity and growth has been immeasurable. We face one of those moments. This is one of those 100-year flood moments. And as much as I’d like to see government not engage and involve itself in so many enterprises, I don’t know the alternative. And as much as I like and respect you, I’ve not heard from Republicans or conservatives or the TEA party attenders, what is the alternative? If the alternative, alternative is to sit back and do nothing, the majority of Americans, evidenced by poll after poll, say, “Do something. Be active and get us out of this mess.”

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Tags: big government, Harold Ford, Meet the Press  

Did The Bredesen Bunker Serve Small Government Conservatism?

By Kleinheider Posted on May 20, 2008 at 11:16 am

Steve Gill this morning was talking with his listeners (or at them) and raised an interesting beef about the Bredesen administration’s proposed buyout of state employees.

Gill predicted that not only would the buyout end up costing more than projected he also believes that the buyout will not save as much money as is predicted. The buyout, he seemed to be saying, was ill-advised.

Gill also questioned whether the so-called Bredesen Bunker should have been built as the money used for the renovation on the Governor’s Executive residence could have been used for these employee buyouts.

Some points here that conservatives should consider. This buyout is purported to be for non-essential employees. These employees, that will be voluntarily dismissed from service from the state, are, in fact, the very kind of government job conservatives always rail against. What Bredesen is doing here is purchasing a reduction of the state bureaucracy. He is reducing not only the government’s size here, but also its scope.

Conservatives often complain that once big government moves in, once it is entrenched, it is impossible to unroot. The power of inertia, they believe, keeps big government going.

What will happen with this buyout is the opposite. Once these non-essential jobs have been emblazened with the non-essential tag they are unlikely to be filled again, even in fat times. These workers and their salaries, this reoccurring government expense, will be gone forever.

If you are a conservative, is not this one-time buyout of big government, a step in the right direction — no matter what the cost ?

On the flipside, the Bredesen bunker is, in fact, a one time expense.  It is a capital expenditure as opposed to a reoccurring expense. It is not bureaucracy.

Furthermore, the conservative must consider this: What if the Bredesen Bunker had not been built? What if that money had not been outlayed?

Well, the Steve Gill’s of the world might say, we would not be in this budget crisis. We would have been saved from this “catastrophe.”

But if we were saved from this budget shortfall then Bredesen would have been saved from having to make these tough choices.

The thing is, if you want to say that bunker is responsible for the budget mess, what you must also admit is that if it wasn’t for the bunker this buyout would not have been necessary, these nonessential jobs would continue to be filled and the leviathan would continue to drift along.

So following conservative logic and conservative principles was the Bredesen Bunker a good thing or a bad thing?

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Tags: big government, Bredesen Bunker, leviathan, state employee buyout, Steve Gill