Starve the Beast

For several decades, it has been the conservative mantra to “starve the beast.” Cutting taxes and entitlement programs are, according to the believers, the basis for America’s prosperity and power.

But for old feds who dealt with disasters of the past, it’s sad to see the sorry state of governmental response to Katrina. I will not slam the leaders of Homeland Security or FEMA; their day on the griddle will come soon enough.

My complaint today is with the conservative movement that consciously moved to “starve the beast.” It is very difficult to say this is how we used to do it when we never faced a calamity of anywhere near the magnitude of Katrina. But I’ll try.

The conservatives want to remove the feed bag from the old ox and let private charity deal with as much of the problem facing us as possible. I don’t find that an unworthy goal, but let’s look at recent situations. Based on a visit to the website of the Red Cross, it appears that about $558 million was donated to that institution for the Tsunami last year - a lot of money. The Salvation Army’s site indicates that Americans have already donated more than $32 million to aid the victims of Katrina as of this morning (Sunday, September 4, 2005.) This too is a great outpouring.

Let’s just assume that private donations from around the world to all of the charities committed to helping the victims of Katrina quadruple those for the tsunami and that Salvation Army collections for Katrina increase tenfold from those now in the coffers. With all wild speculation, we might assume that $5 billion in private charity will be collected and expended on this disaster. That would be an amazing outpouring of money and empathy.

But let’s step back and note that insurance losses are expected to exceed $25 billion, and that the total losses are likely to exceed $100 billion. The catastrophe makes all these payments pale in comparison with the need. The federal government passed an emergency appropriation of $10.5 billion yesterday. Based on my reading of some of the provisions, it will be some time before much of that aid buys food and blankets for individuals.

When FEMA was set up in the 1970s, it was able to tap the entitlement monies of the grant making federal agencies to deal with the disaster facing the nation. Thus, HUD, HHS (then HEW), Labor, and the rest were dunned and expected to come up with money – right now - from their unexpended and uncommitted grant program monies.

Today, the emaciated beast has almost no money in any of these pockets and FEMA and Homeland Security look like a bunch of incompetent braying jackasses.

Thank goodness, the emergency appropriation is but a down payment on the great loss. Unfortunately, the money must still trickle down to state and local governments and ultimately to individual victims through the elaborate grant making process. This will be short circuited to the greatest extent possible, but relief and recovery will take time – much time.

My points are that intentionally “starving the beast” has made response far slower than it would have been and, far more important, that private donations, however great, can never displace government as the principal mitigator of true calamities.

The starved beast of government is shown for all its shortcomings as it responds to Katrina. Citizens who see a role for government in the life of the nation must demand that irresponsible tax cuts CEASE! Government by pork – as in the recent highway bill – may get men and women reelected to Congress but ultimately undermines the government’s ability to perform in emergency situations.

The people must demand more of their government than tax cuts for the rich and no joint sacrifice in the face of war and disaster. Your president, your two senators, and your representative are dancing. Will you demand that they stand and deliver?

Blog on!

Wild Bill