The Constitution Doesn't Include Creation of FEMA, So Why Is It In The Budget? (Joe Rothstein's Commentary)

January 21, 2011

By Joe Rothstein
Editor, EINNEWS.com

Read 'em and weep, John Boehner.

The hand Boehner helped deal himself in the 2010 election contains 165 wild cards, or jokers, depending on one's point of view. That's the number of Republican members of the U.S. House who belong to the Republican "study group" calling for a 30 percent cut in all federal non-defense, non-veteran, non-homeland security spending.

Boehner and the chairman of his budget committee, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, thought they would get by proposing a $60 billion spending cut in next year's budget. The old right wing, now reinforced by 73 GOP freshmen, are having none of it.

In fact, say many of the new Republicans who rode into Washington on tea bags, the government has no business doing much of anything that it's doing.

Sen. Mike Lee of Utah last week gave a lecture where he claimed child labor laws violate the Constitution. So does the minimum wage and laws outlawing discrimination based on race and gender. Lee even called for states to fend for themselves in Katrina-like disasters. The Constitution says nothing about a federal agency such as FEMA, does it?

What we're seeing is the logical progression of a movement that has accepted as gospel Ronald Reagan's injunction that "government isn't the answer to our problems. Government is the problem."

That movement could not end popular government programs and services through an outright frontal attack on them. But it is making serious progress by convincing people that by cutting taxes, enough revenue will be generated from business and job creation to fill the gap.

Oh, so that hasn't worked? Guess we have no alternative now than to spend less.

This attack on government is part ideology and part old-fashioned greed. The greed is self-evident. All you have to do is look at who gets the tax cuts and who gets whatever government subsidies and benefits that are doled out. Look at how profitable big business is these days, how quickly the stock market recovered, and how stressed middle class and poorer families continue to be.

The ideological part is being masked now by wreckage of the economic crisis. Look no further than Texas, where Governor Perry has spoken out, and not all that casually, about states' rights to reject any program coming out of Washington.

Perry won re-election by painting the picture of a growing, booming Texas, fueled by conservative economic principles. Things were going so well that Perry and his legislative allies made major cuts in property taxes in 2006.

Once the votes were counted in 2010, though, a funny thing happened to the Texas miracle. It turned up with a $27 billion budget deficit. Might the answer be to restore the taxes cut in 2006, or to tap into some of the private wealth gushing in from high oil and agricultural prices?

Here's what Perry had to say about that in his recent inaugural speech:

"The frail, the young, the elderly on fixed incomes, those in situations of abuse and neglect, people whose needs are greater than the resources at their disposal---they can count on the people of Texas to be there for them. We will protect them, support them and empower them

"....but (sorry frail, young and elderly) we cannot risk the future of millions of taxpayers in the process. We must cut spending to keep our economic engine on track."

In other words, tough luck those of you who got old, or sick, or who lost your jobs or were born into tough circumstances. Those of us who have intend to keep what we have. In Perry's proposed budget, here's where that leads:

The closing of four community colleges, the reneging on a $10 billion aid-to-schools account (just as 170,000 new students are about to show up), a 10 percent cut in Medicaid payments to doctors (rates already are so low that only 42 percent of Texas doctors participate), a one-third cut in agencies that watch over the state's air (ever tried to breathe in Houston), water, parks and open space. And so on.

It's worth noting that government run on "conservative principles" has Texas at 49th place in verbal SAT scores and 46th in math. Texas only graduates 68 percent of its enrolling high school freshmen. The last time Texas funded an across-the-board pay raise for teachers was 1999.

Perry, it should also be noted, is enjoying something of a boomlet among right-wingers as an ideal candidate for president. Certainly, the 165 members of the Republican "study group" in the U.S. House are exhilarated by his example. The budget they are pressing on Boehner would cut about a third of the money from all discretionary domestic programs---health, education, transportation, research and development---you name it. Or just look at Texas.

These same folks opposed many of these same programs long before the current economic crisis. If you believe, as Utah Sen. Mike Lee believes, that the nation has no responsibility or constitutional right to help the gulf coast recover from Katrina, that's ideology, not fiscal restraint.

The new Republican majorities call themselves conservatives. Now that we're seeing what they really have in mind, wouldn't it more accurate to call them "radical?"

(Joe Rothstein can be contacted at joe@einnews.com)