An opponent of a proposed veterans’ services levy here in Kitsap County has been quoted as saying this: "We do not need continued government support to do what we need to do in our lives. . . .What we need is for government to get the hell out of our way."
I’m getting really tired of hearing variations on the Reaganesque mantra that “government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.” It was more rhetorical than real--just a clever sound bite--when Reagan first uttered it, and it is less than helpful today. To be sure, we need to root out fraud, waste, and abuse at all levels of government. But the fact remains that there are some needs that only government can meet. There are other needs that government has a moral obligation to meet. Given that we have relegated the burden of national defense to less than one percent of our population, the obligation is undeniable, and only government has the mechanisms to ensure a consistent, widespread approach to meeting the need. I support the levy.
And as for our country at large, clever sound bites—especially the mantras of ideologues—are not the solution to our problems. --EFP
