The Transportation Department’s own Inspector General’s office, in a report this week, seems openly dismayed that some of the Department’s stimulus funds are being spent on remote Alaska airports and elsewhere, with little evidence that the outlays have “economic merit” or are doing anything to stimulate the economy.
No kidding. We’re going to be swamped by similar reports in the coming months – and years. After all, the only way that Congress could move so quickly to produce an almost $800 billion stimulus package was to yank off the shelf every legislator’s dream and fantasy project that had been accumulating for a political generation. If even one-third of the “stimulus” money eventually sparks economic activity, it would be a lot.
What is a conservative to make of this?
Taxpayer money.
For a conservative, there are two issues. The first is the always upsetting example of government waste. Of course, private firms too are wasteful and make dreadful decisions, as we’ve seen all too painfully in the past two years. One (possibly salutary) effect of recessions is that they lay bare just how stupid investors and private firms can be. But private firms don’t use the public’s money. By contrast, not only is taxpayer money wasted by errant government programs, but the spending and the programs’ activities distort the market, inflicting inefficiencies that ripple through and impede the entire economy. This alone is enough to prompt conservative opposition to most government programs and to justify finger-wagging when reports surface like those just issued by Transportation’s Inspector General.
The second, and much more fundamental, reason for conservative alarm at the kind of programs criticized by the Inspector General and at the stimulus package’s other programs is that they do what conservatives most fear: They increase the size of government. Born in response to the atrocities and repression unleashed by the French Revolution, as chronicled and analyzed in 1790 by modern conservatism’s founder Edmund Burke, conservatism knows that government and its bureaucrats, by nature, tend over time to grow authoritarian, intrusive and repressive. Their arbitrary rules and actions, no matter how initially well-motivated, ultimately quash our liberties. Though conservatives, in contrast to libertarians, do recognize a legitimate role for government, that role must perpetually and vigilantly be guarded and kept minimal.
The main problem.
For conservatives, therefore, the problem with a stimulus package is not only that some money will be wasted, as confirmed by Transportation’s Inspector General. The main problem – and fear – is that $800 billion in new programs significantly grows the government and thus raises new threats to our liberties. To be sure, an economic stimulus clearly was needed. What’s now needed is for us to dismantle the many stimulus programs, agencies and projects just as soon as our economy starts improving. A “permanent stimulus” lacks all economic merit and poses great dangers.
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