By fitsnews – September 1, 2011
We don’t read Cindi Ross Scoppe’s semi-daily column in The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper – a.k.a. La Socialista – and to be fair, she probably doesn’t read any of the various and sundry musings that we hurl into the marketplace of ideas on a daily basis.
Why not?
Because we’re set in our ways, and Scoppe is set in hers. Oh, and because we live in the real world … whereas she lives in a velvet-gloved socialist utopia that’s full of unicorns, rainbows and daffodils.
In the world of Cindi Ross Scoppe (a.k.a. Pippi Wrongstockings) there is nothing … and we mean NOTHING … that a new government tax, program or budget appropriation can’t fix. Why? Because in Scoppe’s world, government always knows best … whether the subject is creating jobs, educating our children or doing any of the other things it has no business doing (and yet continues doing poorly and inefficiently).
It’s no surprise, then, that Scoppe is literally gushing over former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman – the “moderate” Republican who unveiled a “revenue neutral” tax swap earlier this week.
Ahhhh, revenue neutrality … that sort of thinking is right up Scoppe’s alley, along with guaranteed annual funding increases for a public education system that continues to produce the nation’s lowest graduation rate.
Anyway, here’s Scoppe’s breathless account of her editorial meeting with Huntsman earlier this week …
“As I walked him out of the building after our meeting, Mr. Huntsman asked what our state’s biggest challenges were,” she writes. “I reeled off the obvious answers — a dismal economy, an antiquated tax system, a broken budgeting process, a government in need of overhaul. ‘All entirely fixable,’ he said. Yes, I responded, if you have leaders of good will who understand that they have to work together and compromise. ‘Exactly,’ he said.”
Jesus … and we thought our story about being dry-humped by Nikki Haley in her Cadillac SUV was nauseating.
Along with the “government knows best” myth, this “myth of consensus” is yet another example of everything that’s wrong with this country.
For starters, it presumes that the end result of compromise – i.e. government doing something – is a good thing. Also, when political compromises involve dollars and cents, as they are wont to do, it typically means that Republicans have caved on their fiscal commitment to taxpayers (click here and here for a few recent examples at the federal level).
Oh, and if you’re looking for a bipartisan sellout at the state level, check out this vote … or this one …
Look, we have no problem with politicians “reaching across the aisle” (hell … they can even fly across the aisle on winged unicorns if that’s their bag). But they need to be reaching for something worthwhile – not cutting deals that sell out the people who are funding these increasingly expensive government goat shows.
“Working together and compromising” is not a virtue in and of itself. It’s an entirely neutral act that derives its significance based on the end result of the compromise.
The sooner people learn that – and stop kissing the asses of centrists like Huntsman and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham – the better off this state and nation will be.
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