[Vision2020] Enlightening Remarks From A Conservative Columunist

Art Deco art.deco.studios at gmail.com
Tue Sep 18 04:08:35 PDT 2012


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September 17, 2012
Thurston Howell Romney By DAVID
BROOKS<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/davidbrooks/index.html>

In 1980, about 30 percent of Americans received some form of government
benefits. Today, as Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute
has pointed out, about 49 percent do.

In 1960, government transfers to individuals totaled $24 billion. By 2010,
that total was 100 times as large. Even after adjusting for inflation,
entitlement transfers to individuals have grown by more than 700 percent
over the last 50 years. This spending surge, Eberstadt notes, has increased
faster under Republican administrations than Democratic ones.

There are sensible conclusions to be drawn from these facts. You could say
that the entitlement state is growing at an unsustainable rate and will
bankrupt the country. You could also say that America is spending way too
much on health care for the elderly and way too little on young families
and investments in the future.

But these are not the sensible arguments that Mitt Romney made at a
fund-raiser earlier this year. Romney, who criticizes President Obama for
dividing the nation, divided the nation into two groups: the makers and the
moochers. Forty-seven percent of the country, he said, are people “who are
dependent upon government, who believe they are victims, who believe the
government has a responsibility to take care of them, who believe they are
entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.”

This comment suggests a few things. First, it suggests that he really
doesn’t know much about the country he inhabits. Who are these freeloaders?
Is it the Iraq war veteran who goes to the V.A.? Is it the student getting
a loan to go to college? Is it the retiree on Social Security or Medicare?

It suggests that Romney doesn’t know much about the culture of America.
Yes, the entitlement state has expanded, but America remains one of the
hardest-working nations on earth. Americans work longer hours than just
about anyone else. Americans believe in work more than almost any other
people. Ninety-two percent say that hard work is the key to success,
according to a 2009 Pew Research Survey.

It says that Romney doesn’t know much about the political culture.
Americans haven’t become childlike worshipers of big government. On the
contrary, trust in government has declined. The number of people who think
government spending promotes social mobility has fallen.

The people who receive the disproportionate share of government spending
are not big-government lovers. They are Republicans. They are senior
citizens. They are white men with high school degrees. As Bill Galston of
the Brookings Institution has noted, the people who have benefited from the
entitlements explosion are middle-class workers, more so than the dependent
poor.

Romney’s comments also reveal that he has lost any sense of the social
compact. In 1987, during Ronald Reagan’s second term, 62 percent of
Republicans believed that the government has a responsibility to help those
who can’t help themselves. Now, according to the Pew Research Center, only
40 percent of Republicans believe that.

The Republican Party, and apparently Mitt Romney, too, has shifted over
toward a much more hyperindividualistic and atomistic social view — from
the Reaganesque language of common citizenship to the libertarian language
of makers and takers. There’s no way the country will trust the Republican
Party to reform the welfare state if that party doesn’t have a basic
commitment to provide a safety net for those who suffer for no fault of
their own.

The final thing the comment suggests is that Romney knows nothing about
ambition and motivation. The formula he sketches is this: People who are
forced to make it on their own have drive. People who receive benefits have
dependency.

But, of course, no middle-class parent acts as if this is true.
Middle-class parents don’t deprive their children of benefits so they can
learn to struggle on their own. They shower benefits on their children to
give them more opportunities — so they can play travel sports, go on
foreign trips and develop more skills.

People are motivated when they feel competent. They are motivated when they
have more opportunities. Ambition is fired by possibility, not by
deprivation, as a tour through the world’s poorest regions makes clear.

Sure, there are some government programs that cultivate patterns of
dependency in some people. I’d put federal disability payments and
unemployment insurance in this category. But, as a description of America
today, Romney’s comment is a country-club fantasy. It’s what self-satisfied
millionaires say to each other. It reinforces every negative view people
have about Romney.

Personally, I think he’s a kind, decent man who says stupid things because
he is pretending to be something he is not — some sort of cartoonish
government-hater. But it scarcely matters. He’s running a depressingly
inept presidential campaign. Mr. Romney, your entitlement reform ideas are
essential, but when will the incompetence stop?


-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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