Saturday, December 31, 2005

A Glimmer of Hope

It’s a tough old world out there, and the older you get, the easier it is to occasionally get discouraged. But then, every once in awhile, a glimmer of hope appears and gives us strength to carry on. Like when your daughter brings home a boy that actually has a chance of finding a job. Or like when your heart doctor tells you "See you next year".

I received one of those glimmers Saturday morning when I picked up my Indianapolis Star and read the editorial, "Bailout mustn’t drown us in debt". I’ve grown accustomed to newspapers clamoring for more funding for sports stadiums, convention centers, libraries and hiking trails, and any other project that a portion of their readership might deem desirable. And I realize that the Star didn’t come right out and say that the federal government isn’t authorized to take $700.00 from every man, woman and child in the United States and give it to some questionably accountable agency in Louisiana. But it did question whether the federal government should be sending $12.5 million to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum. And it did state that the rest of the $23 billion in pork projects from the recent highway bill "can no longer be justified in light of the massive and extensive emergency on the Gulf Coast." It’s not a great leap to think that at some time in the near future they might decide that pork barrel projects are never justified

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The editorial did at least raise the possibility that the feds might be able to reduce some of their spending. That’s more than we heard from Tom DeLay, the Republican Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, who stated, "there is simply no fat to cut in the federal budget." But then I stopped hoping for much out of our current politicians a long time ago.

I cut the editorial out and taped it to my office wall among varied Sheldon Richman and Joe Sobran articles. For times when I need a little hope.

Now, I know that the Indianapolis Star didn’t come right out and endorse the libertarian idea of a limited government. And I know that Dan Carpenter and Sheila Suess-Kennedy will continue to assail those ideas with columns that will cause me to unleash unsolicited diatribes upon anybody in my vicinity of my reading room, usually my poor wife.


I also know we have our work cut out for us, trying to convince a majority of voters that a multi-trillion dollar debt really does matter, that people are better equipped than the government to make their own personal decisions, and that the free-market is more efficient than government regulation.

I know all of that. But Saturday, I had a good day.


9/18/05



1 Comments:

Blogger Libertarian Jason said...

Amen, Rex... I hear that.

10:13 PM  

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