Marketplace of Ideas Blog

Every once in a while, an overseas observer is able to spot things about ourselves that we Americans cannot.

The Economist’s Lexington uses the review of a new book, Gene Healy’s The Cult of the Presidency, to examine the cult around our current president:

Mr Obama has inspired more passionate devotion than any modern American politician. People scream and faint at his rallies. Some wear T-shirts proclaiming him “The One” and noting that “Jesus was a community organiser”. An editor at Newsweek described him as “above the country, above the world; he’s sort of God.” He sets foreign hearts fluttering, too. A Pew poll published this week finds that 93% of Germans expect him to do the right thing in world affairs. Only 14% thought that about Mr Bush.

Perhaps Mr Obama inwardly cringes at the personality cult that surrounds him. But he has hardly discouraged it. As a campaigner, he promised to “change the world”, to “transform this country” and even (in front of a church full of evangelicals) to “create a Kingdom right here on earth”. As president, he keeps adding details to this ambitious wish-list. He vows to create millions of jobs, to cure cancer and to seek a world without nuclear weapons. On July 20th he promised something big (a complete overhaul of the health-care system), something improbable (to make America’s college-graduation rate the highest in the world by 2020) and something no politician could plausibly accomplish (to make maths and science “cool again”). …

It is pointless for a modern president to plead that some things, such as the business cycle, are beyond his control. So several have sought dubious powers to meet the public’s unreasonable expectations. … Mr Obama promised to roll back Mr Bush’s imperial presidency. But has he? Having slammed his predecessor for issuing “signing statements” dismissing parts of laws he had just signed, he is now doing the same thing. He vowed to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, but this week put off for another six months any decision as to what to do with the inmates. Meanwhile, he has embraced Mrs [Hillary] Clinton’s curious notion that the president should be “commander-in-chief of our economy”, by propping up banks, firing executives, backing car warranties and so forth. Mr Healy reckons that Mr Obama is “as dedicated to enhancing federal power as any president in 50 years.” …

All presidential candidates promise more than they can possibly deliver. This sets them up for failure. But because the Obama cult has stoked expectations among its devotees to such unprecedented heights, he is especially likely to disappoint. Mr Healy predicts that he will end up as a failed president, and “possibly the least popular of the modern era”. It is up to Mr Obama to prove him wrong.

Real Debate Wisconsin provides proof of the free-market mantra that lower taxes are better for business than higher taxes:

Statistics shows that if state and local taxes were lower in certain states, namely Wisconsin, those states would attract more entrepreneurs.

In a study commissioned by the Small Business Administration, Donald Bruce (University of Tennessee) and John Deskins (Creighton University), found that higher top tax rates on individual income, higher sales tax rates and the existence of state-level inheritance or gift taxes all seemed to reduce a state’s share of the national entrepreneurial stock. In their study, from 1989 to 2001, Wisconsin appeared to have had above taxes and below average entrepreneurial scores.

Even though state and local taxes are minor issues for Bruce and Deskins, they are quick to point out that states with larger state governments, as measured by state taxes per capita, seems to have lower entrepreneurial shares.

That brings to mind a common accusation from one side of the political spectrum to the other — that those who favor lower taxes don’t specify where they would prefer corresponding government spending cuts.

Boots and Sabers blogger Owen Robinson takes up the challenge:

Perhaps the most difficult place to cut spending is at the local level. Local governments tend to be the leanest, although as a comparison to the state or federal government, that’s not saying much. Still, local governments provide the vast majority of the direct services that people use.

I could do without as much salting in winter. I can wait a few hours until after the snow storm comes through before venturing out. The city and county parks would be just as enjoyable and beautiful if they were mowed less. Community television, while nice to catch various local board meetings, is a luxury that we could do without and put the video of the meetings on the internet.

The state level of government is a much more target rich environment. Gov. Doyle has implemented a series of furloughs of government employees to try to counteract his massive deficit. Have you noticed? I haven’t. In fact, we could cut back most government office schedules without harming the citizens. At the same time, we could make the hours more convenient. For example, the Department of Motor Vehicles could be open four days a week including Saturday and most citizens would consider it an improvement.

Wisconsin has an abundance of technical colleges, two-year University of Wisconsin and four-year University of Wisconsin campuses that have many redundant services in relatively small geographical areas. Several of them could be eliminated altogether.

The federal government is the richest environment for cuts of any level of government. Not only does it have the narrowest Constitutional mandate, but it is also the most bloated. As one goes through the list of federal government agencies and programs, it’s staggering how many of them Americans managed to survive without as little as 30 years ago.

I could live without Social Security. I don’t plan on it being solvent when I retire anyway. Beyond that, I could live without almost all block grants, federal bike trails, most of the IRS we wouldn’t need if we had a flat tax, the DEA, TSA, DOE, Medicaid, NEA, NEH, Peace Corps, and, of course, GM, AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Chrysler. Shrinking the federal government to the confines of the Constitution is something I could live with.

Some of those are arguable points. Robinson may not watch community television, but people who want to see their government spending their tax dollars but can’t attend the meetings do watch. People who drive a lot of miles daily might not agree with his point about road salt, or be able to “wait a few hours until after the snow storm comes through.” Others have other budget cut ideas — four-year-old kindergarten, the Wisconsin State Patrol, selling, instead of buying, state land, and so on.

The next round of statewide elections is only a year or so away. (You’re welcome for the warning.) The Capital Times’ John Nichols notes Republican challenges to two Democratic congressmen in this area:

Already the dean of the delegation, Appropriations Committee Chair Dave Obey, D–Wausau, has attracted a high-profile GOP challenger. Ashland County District Attorney Sean Duffy announced early in July that he would take on the 40-year incumbent. The contrast will be stark: Obey, man of Washington, versus Duffy, champion lumberjack and former cast member for MTV’s “The Real World.”

In the most competitive of the state’s congressional districts, northeast Wisconsin’s 8th, Democratic incumbent Steve Kagen will finally face a Republican other than former Assembly Speaker John Gard. A career politician who had allowed his ties to his home turf to slacken — when he served in the Assembly, Gard resided, for all intents and purposes, in the Dane County community of Sun Prairie — Gard was frequently described as “the only Republican who could lose the 8th.” And he did — twice. Now more electable Republicans are coming out of the woodwork in the timber, pulp and paper region: Businessman Reid Ribble, Brown County Supervisor Andy Williams and Door County Supervisor Mark Savard (whose family operates an organic farm near Sister Bay) are already in the race and several legislators and current and former Green Bay officials are still considering the contest.

Kagen has proven to be a savvy representative, with a populist streak that should play well in tough economic times. But he knows that since the Republican Party was founded, no Democrat has held this seat for more than two terms.

For those who look at the national and state GOP’s disarray and are therefore skeptical of Nichols’ premise:

Playing defense doesn’t work at points like this. For confirmation of that fact, remember a summer 16 years ago when a popular new Democratic president was promoting health care reform, while a solidly Democratic House and Senate were preparing to take up a host of progressive economic and social policy initiatives. A relatively unknown Republican congressman from Georgia was busy recruiting serious challengers to entrenched Democratic incumbents. Democrats laughed at the GOP upstart and comforted themselves with the notion that they only needed to hold what they had. The idea of mounting a real campaign that went after Republican incumbents — and that shifted the direction of the debate — was dismissed as unnecessary.

A year and a half later, health care reform was dead, as were those economic and social policy initiatives. And Newt Gingrich was the speaker of the House.