How Dysfunction Helps the GOP

'Remember the $400 hammer? How 'bout that $600 toilet seat?" asks a Conservatives for Patients' Rights TV commercial criticizing President Barack Obama's health-care plan. "Seems when Congress gets involved, things just cost more."

As it happens, I do remember the incident of the $436 hammer, the one that made headlines back in 1984. And while it may "seem" in hazy retrospect as though it showed how "things just cost more" once those silly liberals in Congress get started, what the hammer episode actually illustrated was a very different sort of ripoff. The institution that paid so very much for that hammer was President Ronald Reagan's Pentagon. A private-sector contractor was the party that was pleased to take the Pentagon's money. And it was a liberal Democrat in the House of Representatives, also known as "Congress," who publicized the pricey hardware to the skies.

But so what? Myth is so much more satisfying than history, and with myth the competence of Washington actors from 25 years ago doesn't matter any more. Nor does it matter which arm of the federal colossus did what. Republican or Democrat, White House or Congress, they're all part of a monolithic, undifferentiated "government" that acts according to a money-burning logic all its own.

The myth has been getting a lot of play from conservatives in recent weeks as the debate over health care has heated up. The message, as always, is that government can't do anything right.

Where the conservative mythologists show their hand is when they use their own monumental screw-ups, committed during conservatism's long years in charge of the government, to prove that government in general is a futile proceeding, and that Democratic health-care plans, in particular, can't possibly succeed.

We heard this bizarre reasoning during last year's campaign season. "Unless you're pleased with the way the federal government has been running anything lately," Gov. Sarah Palin declared last October, when the federal government had been answering to her fellow Republican for nearly eight years, "I don't think that it's going to be real pleasing for Americans to consider health care being taken over by the feds."

Among former President George W. Bush's gravest and most characteristic blunders, of course, was his administration's response to Hurricane Katrina, when the nation learned the true price of government by crony and contractor. But for conservatives, that is too nuanced a view. The real lesson to learn from Katrina as we debate health care is simply that government can never work. "The federal government would run a health care system -- or a public plan option -- with the compassion of the IRS, the efficiency of the post office, and the incompetence of Katrina," carps the official summary of the Republicans' Patients' Choice Act.

I've always thought that P.J. O'Rourke was only half joking when he wrote, years ago, that "Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then they get elected and prove it." Conservatives grasp the grand strategic sweep of politics better than liberals, and consequently they have always seemed to understand that what they do when they're in charge can help to reinforce the myths that put them there.

A government that works, some conservatives fear, is dangerous stuff. It gives people ideas. Universal health care isn't just a bad idea for their buddies in the insurance business; it's a gateway drug to broader state involvement in the economy and hence a possible doomsday scenario for conservatism itself. As two fellows of the Ethics and Public Policy Center fretted in the Weekly Standard in May, "health care is the key to public enmeshment in ballooning welfare states, and passage of ObamaCare would deal a heavy blow to the conservative enterprise in American politics."

On the other hand, government fails constantly when conservatives run it because making it work would be, for many of those conservatives, to traduce the very laws of nature. Besides, as we can now see, bungling Katrina recovery or Pentagon procurement pays conservatives huge dividends. It gives them potent ammunition to use when the liberals have returned and are proposing another one of their grand schemes to reform health care.

This is the perverse incentive that is slowly remaking the GOP into the Snafu Party. And in those commercials and those proclamations we should also discern a warning: That even if Democrats manage to set up a solid health-care program, conservatives will do their best, once they have regained power, to drop it down the same chute they did the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Maybe they will appoint a tobacco lobbyist to run the thing. Maybe they will starve it for funds. Or antagonize its work force. And as it collapses they will hand themselves their greatest propaganda victory of all. They will survey the ruins and chide, "You didn't really think government could work, did you?"

Also in Opinion Journal:
The Palin Puzzle
Obama and Putin's Russia

Comments

[BeachBubbaTex]

The sad reality is that this all comes back to the electorate's willingness to accept these myths as facts. (Maybe the author should familiarize himself with a great book, something called WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS.)

I don't know if my growing pessimism comes from age (entering a grumbling curmudeon stage) or from the sad state of political dialog (where the best is regularly offered on The Daily Show and Colbert). Americans have historically responded well to "paradigm shifts" caused by external shocks to the system (with notable exceptions, like race).

This does not seem to be the case any more. Following 9/11 and the current economic meltdown, a sizable percentage seem content to just ignore reality and simply switch the channel.

[Liberal2]

Yes, at the heart of America's problems is a hopelessly conservative (read: stupid) electorate.

And your "curmudeon stage" is due to a sense of hopelessness as the country sinks into a hopeless, helpless condition that South American countries are in.

On another HuffPost thread a reichwing damn fool was against "single-payer" health care. He doesn't grasp single-payer will end up costing him less as profit and negligence (not treating conditions in the early stage) are taken out of the system.

Similar is public financing of campaigns: better, more honest government a legalized bribery is ended. But oh no, tax dollars going to the "other guy"!!! Of course legalized bribery ends up costing every American 10 times more.

[realpolitic]

Exactly! Conservatives run on a platform that government can not do anything and is utterly wasteful and incompetent. Therefore, what incentives to conservatives have to show that government can operate effficently and help the lives of ordinary Americans? They want to destroy government and smash it under foot. When they get to office they feel little duty to show any more than the utter incompetence Bush did. A major city under five five feet of water after a Category Three hurricane and Bush finds out about the damage a week later after reviewing a tape of news reports recorded by aides. He did not even bother to tune in himself to CNN for the entire week New Orleans was under water. What contempt for government! I guess if my father was as rich i would have such contempt for government, too!

[Guitarsandmore]

What amazes me the most is how Republicans are 100% sure that government can not get anything done yet the very same Republicans are totally convinced that nuclear power is the answer and nuclear waste is no problem at all. Why we'll just wisk that toxic waste right under the rug somewhere anywhere it doesn't matter. The government will handle it.

Health Care? oh, no the government could never do that.

Nuclear Waste? no problem! let the Republicans handle that for you.

[tomasedison]

try to imagine for just 15 seconds the amount of waste, fraud and useless effort generated over at the Defense Dept. on a virtually unlimited budget for anything they want

[victor the crab]

And the moral of the story is: DON'T ELECT A REPUBLICAN!

[darker]

Here is just one law of REPUBLICAN NATURE:

The Republican Nanny State for their corporate rich is all about TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN.
They deregulate, they take ANY excuse to fire workers so that the EXECUTIVES can
ENRICH THEMSELVES at workers' expense, while tripling the work load of workers.

There is no regulation of the current OPPORTUNISTIC CORPORATE SCAMMING.
Republicans' CORPORATE AMERICA = LIARS & THIEVES.

[Senzasord]

I have always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are "I am a Republican and you can trust me."

[Jannsmoor]

If you vote for people who tell you to your face that "Government is the problem," you deserve a dysfunctional government. It's like asking all your generals at the outset of a war "Which of you believes we will lose?" and having them lead. Or hiring engineers at NASA who don't believe airplanes can fly.

[DannyDanson]

I will gladly second every word of this insightful post,

This is the "Big Trick" that the GOP stategists have pulled over the eyes of the American people, utilizing every cultural scar, disagreement, difference and ambivalency to do so.

By consistently starving government funding through unnecessary tax cuts, and passionately fighting against a living wage for the lowest paid Americans, while knowing full well that consumer spending represents the lion's share of our economic viability these sabotures are undermining the broadest means of economic growth and "true" free market economics.

By fighting to deregulate the staple industries which create our notion of American life such as , telecommunications, banking, energy, insurance, and healthcare the GOP has effectively put the country in a position where the captains of industry and the minority investor class of Americans can counteract the democratic will of "We The People" and hold the country's welbeing hostage to their self-centered desire to increase profit margins without innovating the new technologies to bring down cost for all, and why would they people?

[DannyDanson]

Those in the GOP always speak of small businesses as if they are actually concerned about small businesses. Consider the manner in which small businesses are started in the first place, generally you have a middle class American, working a decent paying job that provides a living wage, that individual lives responsibly, saves prudently, invests wisely, and in time saves up enough overhead to risk the venture into entreprenuership. In many cases these individuals take the experience they've gained from their previously positions and apply them to a new and innovative, smaller, more cost effective business model that can serve a targeted local market that they feel they can serve better, they don't expect to make corporate executive pay, oftentimes they work for free in order to deliver a quality product at a competitive price, if people appreciate the services are product that small business grows, and gain marketshare, then the TRUE invisible hand of free market capitalism takes over, the larger company has innovative as well or continue losing market share, now under the GOP BS economic pimp policies thy've made it appear as if living wages for Americans are somehow counteractive in terms of national economic growth, not so maybe counteractive to the economic free market embezellment of a select few Americans, but great for America and our return to a position of leadership. These clowns are laughing at the country behind closed doors, and feigning outrage in the spotlight.

[ScreenName05]

We are making a serious mistake and if we don't change very soon we are going to pay dearly for that mistake!

The financial crisis is not over. It is not even better than it was. If anything Biden's statement was too weak. There is every indication that all of the banks that have exited from TARP are going to be back in a worse position within the next 2 years. There are huge bubbles of Prime, Alt-A, Option Arm, and other loans that are now entering default, at least as many as occurred in the sub-prime bubble in 2007 through present. IN addition, the banks have at least a years worth of loans in foreclosure that they have held off on defaulting as part of freeze on foreclosures. Those additional year of supply will hit the market this year.

The mistake we are making is to worry about political parties and how one gets the upper hand. Disaster is coming in a very big way. At least 50% of all Alt-A and Option Arm loans are likely to default in the next three years. We cannot afford political games, such as the recent release of the top ten banks from TARP. These banks are going to be in serious trouble again within months. And there is no money to save them again. We must start making non-political decisions that are calculated to save the economy, not save political parties.

[victor the crab]

That's just going to make Republicans cream in their pants.

[tigerakabj]

I like to think of the GOP as America's own wrecking ball.

Democrats come in to clean up (well, this crop better give America some public option, or they get voted out -- no excuses), the Republicans come in to destroy.

The GOP has been trying to undo FDRs work for the last 70 years, and they almost succeeded. The type of society they want is 12th century Europe -- a theocratic­/corporate feudal system in which the top 2% have it all (white, 'Christian" males), and the bottom 98% scratch and scrape for crumbs.

All those people who hate govt (i.e. Rick Perry) will scream from the rooftop the second some natural disaster threatens their area. They hate "socialist" govt until you threaten to take away their social security checks. When they are poisoned from salmonella, when no one comes to get their garbage, when no water comes to their house, when gas prices go to $7/gallon, etc, etc, etc.

It is no wonder it seems like night and day btwn the past administration and the present.

[4real]

Great post. It's kinda scary to think that if healthcare for everyone passed and God forbid the repubs get into power again they would do everything possible to destroy the system. I hope Repubs as we know them are OUT of power for good.

[justthefacts17]

Libs hate liberty and conservatives hate government­...not so hard
to understand

[PopulistPagan]

Liberals founded this country. Conservatives fought for the British.

Liberals love their countrymen. Conservatives fear them.

Liberals love their freedoms. Conservatives would glady give them up to be safe.

What is hard to understand is why conservatives hate America.

[Eoin45]

You understand nothing. We'd still be British if conservatives had their way in 1776.

[DannyDanson]

hate liberty, Liberal - Liberty do you see any similarity here all that separate liberal from liberty is a t and y, that's not by chance guy. Where do you get this fluff from, do you honestly believe it, or does it help justify the ridiculousness you call reason.

And one more point whenever you say something is "not so hard to understand" consider the possibility that this may just be an idictment of your our intellectual failing, ignorance, low IQ, or retardation (in the medical sense).

Conservative are running for Government office right?, So explain to me how every Republican that runs for office is not a lying dishonest trickster, conservatism and liberalism are both methods of governance, therefore being a conservative doesn't imply that one hates government rather that one disagrees with one particular method of Governance (i.e Liberalism)

The notion of hating Government is a convention of GOP political strategism, intended to create cynicism in the minds of voters wherever the opposition offers a policy intended to solve issues that many times Republicans also agree exists, such as healthcare, ask a Repug if there are problems in our healthcare system the majority will answer yes, the contention comes when the ends solving that problem comes through government intervention, the GOP would rather the people shut up and wait for those making millions even with the problem to find God and fix it, as if that would ever happen.

[DannyDanson]

People may choose to do whats right, but on the other hand businesses primarily will only do what make business sense, (i.e. Increases Profit)

So ask yourself (Why would insurance giants want to offer affordable insurance coverage to all Americans with preventative care option which would reduces healthcare cost nationally over the long run?)

Or why would they agree to cover Americans with pre-existing conditions?

Or why would they agree to invest in finding the most rewarding and successful treatments options based of a pool of SQL data and comparitive effectiveness research, and incentivize the ordering of "proven" test regiments over the free range profiterring model we have now.

Or why would an Energy company invest millions is carbon sequestration when they are just find forgetting about it?

Or why would they invest in alternative energy sources when all they have to do is burn more coal to make bigger profits?

See guy some things may be in the best interest of all Americans, and the world in general, but such may not be the cast for stake holders in these multi-nationals, to even expect the private sector to do these things without some gov't coersion is a pipe dream, it won't happen.

But this is why when have a Democracy and a Gederal Government, what the people want they, they vote for, and what they vote for is what they should get.

The Government is the final gatekeeper of plutocracy.

[Jannsmoor]

Regarding government vs. private sector, one need look further than the deregulation of electricity, George Bush, and Ken Lay. All the promises of greater efficiency and lower cost evaporated instantly. Electricity shot up 10 times, then 20 times, then in some cases 100 times the cost prior to "deregulat­ion." Every PUD that went private will pay dramatically higher energy costs for many years to come, if not forever.
I also have a question why the Post Office is thought to be so inefficient. After 20 years, Federal Express, UPS and DHL have all never once sent a letter from San Francisco CA to Washington DC for less than $.50. What am I missing? I think it's a miracle I can have a letter picked up at my house and hand delivered to another house across the nation for less the $.50. Is it just me?

[demockracy]

Frank is correct in saying "conservatives" (what are they conserving?) want to undermine government to prove it can only produce toxic waste. It's also good to remember the boost racism gave this movement. When government used troops to integrate schools, people were understandably displeased. California's Proposition 13 ("starving the beast") passed soon after the courts ruled that school districts with those poor, brown people would get an equalized share of education funds. Finally, Harry Truman's single-payer health insurance failed because the Dixiecrats (soon-to-be Republicans, after Nixon's Southern Strategy capitalized on these divisions) feared integrated hospitals.

Racism and divide-and-conquer are as old as the country. Perhaps newer are the willingness to use open meeting laws to bring attention to the public sector's peccadilloes (Enron didn't have public board meetings), and the surreal propaganda based on people's resentment at being told what to do. ("Keep the dang government out of my Medicare!")

This resentment exists, incidentally, even for self-direction. Ten minutes after you've started exercising because of your own New Year's resolution, you'll be asking yourself "Who is making me do this?"

Coddling this kind of immaturity seems to be a major media function too.

[GeorgeBurnsWasRight]

Ever wonder why W ran the aftermath of the Iraq invasion so incompetently? Frontline on PBS did a report that said that all of the civilians he sent there were hired strictly on the basis of their ideology. The employment application was just page after page of detailed questions about the job seeker's politics. In fact, the neocons wanted to show that people with the right "pure" ideology would be so much more effective at governing. Frontline had one interview with a military officer who found out that the people he reported to had just graduated from college and had been friends at the same fraternity house, and of course Young Republicans. One of them told him he was completely confident they could run Iraq because he had never had any problems organizing a beer party at the frat house. The officer concluded by saying, "These were my bosses and I realized we were in great trouble."

[kitkatborn]

God takes care of fools, drunks, & children. Somebody has to do it. LOL

[Rooster54]

I would add Republicans to that list.

[Bobzmcishl]

There have been at least two book written about the incompetent civilians sent over to Iraq to help restore the infrastructure. In one case, a 25 year old was assigned to create a whole new traffic control system for Iraq, when they already had a perfectly good system in Iraq. In another case a recent college grad was assigned to build an Iraqi stock exchange with electronic trading, whereas the old system was totally manual and worked fine. Of course both endeavors were total failures, and both hires were based on allegiance to the Republican Party.

[kitkatborn]

Simply brilliant.

[GeorgeBurnsWasRight]

And many conservatives now refuse to buy a car from GM because they want the bail out to fail. As a sign of how the GOP has changed over the years, while some opposed the Chrysler bail out years ago, I don't remember any of them urging a boycott of the company after they got their loan. And this all ties in with the kooks who want the US attacked so they can say "I told you so". It's the old cliche of cutting off your nose to spite your face.

[noaxe397]

Can anyone cite a quote from Dick Cheney (since leaving office) where he has said he does NOT want America attacked? When Panetta said it seemed as if Cheney wanted the US attacked all Cheney said was I hope my good friend Leon misspoke. He didn't say, "No, I don't want America attacked."