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WASHINGTON (AP) — The economy needs to be fixed. On this,
Democrats and Republicans agree. They part ways over how to do it
and, specifically, what role the federal government should
play.
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“Ultimately,” President Barack Obama tells Congress, “our recovery
will be driven not by Washington, but by our businesses and our
workers. But we can help.” His argument that government has a
responsibility to do so probably doesn’t sit well with an America
that’s down on Washington.
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Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and
other Republicans competing for his job take a different tack as
they court a tea party-infused GOP electorate: The economy will
thrive, they say, if Washington simply gets out of the way. As
Perry puts it: “Smaller government, less spending, fewer
regulations.”
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At the heart of the 2012 presidential race is an issue as old as
the country itself. Is it the federal government’s responsibility
to address what ails the nation, in this case the economy? And if
so, to what degree? What is the right balance?
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History tells us that, try as we might, we may never answer those
questions; we’ve been debating them ever since the Jeffersonians
and the Federalists squabbled over states’ rights vs. a strong
central government. In the end, the Constitution assigned certain
powers to the federal government while reserving others to
states.
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But the tension in America between the purely local and a far-off
central government has never gone away. Nor, perhaps, should it in
an ever-evolving democracy.
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These days, Republicans argue for a limited government, claiming
that lower taxes and less regulation will encourage job creation.
Democrats advocate a more robust government, one that provides more
services, pours more money into the economy and, in Obama’s case,
raises taxes on the nation’s highest earners.
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“We’ve been in this pattern for decades. These are the terms of our
politics probably for the next generation, too,” said Charles
Kesler, who teaches government at Claremont McKenna College and
edited “Saving the Revolution: The Federalist Papers and the
American Founding.”
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Given the scripts, the question that ultimately determines who wins
the presidency might be this: What do Americans want from their
government?
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For many, the answer is difficult to articulate.
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Larry Parkin, a conservative who hosts a discussion group on the
Federalist Papers with the South Pinellas 9.12 Patriots in St.
Petersburg, Fla., just started collecting Social Security, which he
calls a contract with the government. The 65-year-old Coast Guard
retiree expects the country to secure the borders and protect the
nation. Beyond that, he says: “I expect them to be less intrusive
than they are. I expect them to have a limited role.”
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But he struggles to identify exactly where the line between too
much and too little government lies.
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Ask Ashley Stilos, a liberal in Fayettville, Ark., the same
question and she says one of the government’s roles is to take care
of its people, adding: “Every individual should have the right to
pursue happiness from an equal fighting ground, and that’s not the
way it is in society.”
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Is it the government’s job to make that playing field level? The
27-year-old university loan specialist says: “They have the power
to make it more equal, and it’s their responsibility to do
that.”
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Americans’ views of government have shifted in recent years,
according to an analysis of Associated Press exit polls.
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In 1992, more than half of voters thought government was doing too
many things better left to businesses and individuals. But by 2008,
a majority, for the first time, wanted government to do more to
solve the nation’s problems.
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That didn’t last long after Obama took office. In quick fashion, he
signed into law an economic stimulus plan, oversaw an auto-industry
bailout and presided over the second installment of money to keep
Wall Street afloat. A health care system overhaul came a year
later.
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By 2010, 56 percent of voters were back to saying that government
was overreaching, while just 38 percent said government should be
more active. It was the most government wary view among
independents that the exit poll has recorded, with 65 percent
saying government should do less, while 28 percent said it should
do more.
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Nowadays, people across the political spectrum seem to want very
little from Washington.
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A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll in June found that 63
percent of people think the government is doing too much, while 33
percent want it to do more. And the sentiments of independents, who
typically decide close elections, generally mirrored Americans at
large.
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But all that could change quickly, especially if these tough times
persist, with 9.1 percent unemployment, rampant foreclosures and
fear of back-to-back recessions.
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Against this backdrop, Obama is seeking re-election. And a 24-hour
span last week showed the vastly different type of leader – and
view of government – the nation will get if they choose a
Republican over him.
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No sooner did eight Republicans take the debate stage at the Ronald
Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., than did they
rail against the federal government requiring states to act a
certain way, lambast Washington overreach, and argue that fewer
regulations and lower taxes would compel businesses to hire
again.
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“They’re looking for a president that will say we’re going to lower
the tax burden on you and we’re going to lower the regulation
impact on you, and free them to do what they do best: create jobs,”
said Perry, who has staked his candidacy on a promise to make the
federal government as inconsequential as possible to people’s
lives.
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He and the others were posturing before a GOP electorate shaped by
the tea party, whose existence can be attributed in part to a
disgust by citizens over the growth of government – and federal
spending – under George W. Bush, a Republican, and Obama, a
Democrat.
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“I believe in a lot of what the tea party believes in,” Romney
said. “The tea party believes that government’s too big, taxing too
much, and that we ought to get to the work of getting Americans to
work.”
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Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann said Washington needs to stay out
of education and health issues, claiming: “We have the best results
when we have the private sector and when we have the family
involved. We have the worst results when the federal government
gets involved.” And Texas Rep. Ron Paul opposes the federal
government from having any role that isn’t explicitly laid out in
the Constitution.
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One night later, Obama pressed Congress to immediately pass a $450
billion plan to create jobs and jolt the economy, arguing that
government was at least partly responsible for fixing it, helping
Americans who are hurting and upgrading the nation’s crumbling
roads, bridges and schools.
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“This task of making America more competitive for the long haul,
that’s a job for all of us,” he said, adding: “For government and
for private companies. For states and for local communities – and
for every American citizen.”
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He countered the pitch from conservatives and the tea party that
heavily cutting government spending and eliminating a chunk of
government regulations is the best solution to the economic woes,
saying: “This larger notion that the only thing we can do to
restore prosperity is just dismantle government, refund everybody’s
money, and let everyone write their own rules, and tell everyone
they’re on their own – that’s not who we are. That’s not the story
of America.”
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And he reached back to history to try to prove his
point.
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Obama argued that its workers and entrepreneurs made America’s
economy great, the envy of the world. But he also noted that
government was responsible for the Transcontinental Railroad, the
National Academy of Sciences, the first land grant colleges, the
G.I. Bill, the nation’s highway and air systems, the public school
system, research that led to the Internet and the computer
chip.
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Americans will hear these competing visions of government for the
next 14 months before casting a vote that will offer a glimpse into
Americans views of the scope of government – a temporary clarity at
best as the debate as old as our founding rages on.
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—
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EDITOR’S NOTE – Liz Sidoti, the political editor for The Associated
Press, has covered national politics for the AP since
2003.
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