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Health & Fitness

The New (legislative) Year

Dear reader:

During the Christmas season, I re-read and considered these words; perhaps, you did, too: "He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, And the rich He has sent away empty."

Not all of you are familiar, or desire to be familiar, with the basis for Christmas. But for those of us who appreciate the story, the quote above is powerful and gives pause. I want to be (and I want to help others be) among those who are filled with good things –not among those sent away empty. So it is a natural to ask, what impact should Christmas have on legislators and the public policies we produce? 

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As it happens, during the very time we considered Christmas, we also heard the voice of politicians past and present. The fifty-year anniversary of President Lyndon Baines Johnson's "War on Poverty" was observed, and we were reminded that the architect of the war told Congress that Johnson's policies would completely eliminate poverty in ten years. Trillions of tax dollars, numerous decades, and many government programs later, we still have poverty. The continued existence of poverty caused our current President to announce in December that he was proposing ever more and newer government programs to address what he called "income inequality."  

It seems a positive thing that President Obama and I can share the goal of filling the hungry with good things. Voters and office-holders alike appreciate bi-partisan work. Yet there is a huge chasm that stands between the stated goal and our respective maps to get to the goal. 

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President Obama argues the federal government needs to be bigger, more powerful, and more active in order to reach the goal. He argues this during a time when Edward Snowden and the NSA have made it manifestly clear that the government already views the intimate details of our lives as their data. The government also regards private technology and communications firms as their surrogate spies (to the damage of the companies’ business interests).

During his “income inequality” speech, the President made it clear that he views private employers as the government’s domestic public policy tool. The president wants more federal minimum wage legislation, more federal civil rights litigation, and more favorable federal treatment of unions to insure that people are not mistreated. Yet those same laws keep willing employers from taking a chance on "not-so-promising-prospects" or from paying a sole-bread winner more than a young person who still lives at home.  

It might seem natural to endorse the federal government expansions sought by the likes of Johnson and Obama as a means to fill the hungry. Yet, time and experience have shown us that many expansions of government benefit those in control of the government –rather than the governed.     

Those who want to “fill the hungry” would do well to find local solutions rather than empower the federal government. Teaching a person to fish, or farm, or better govern their life does not take a more expansive federal government–it takes parents, friends, affiliation groups, and communities.

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