Column: Reagan was wrong. Government isn’t the problem, as the pandemic makes clear

Ronald Reagan mentioned in his 1981 inaugural deal with that “authorities is just not the answer to our downside, authorities is the issue.” The coronavirus outbreak teaches in any other case.

(PBS)

It was a sunny, chilly day on Jan. 20, 1981, when President Reagan stood exterior the Capitol for his inaugural deal with and declared that “authorities is just not the answer to our downside, authorities is the issue.”

He was speaking concerning the recession that had been weighing on People because the late Nineteen Seventies, making the case for why extra taxes and rules weren't the reply to the nation’s financial woes.

However Reagan’s “authorities is the issue” line would function a mantra for Republican politicians from that day onward, a secure harbor from which to defend many years of anti-government rhetoric.

Now right here we're, amid an unprecedented public well being disaster. Tens of 1000's of People are useless. Thousands and thousands are out of labor.

An anxious, frightened nation desperately turns to the federal authorities for management in managing and overcoming this emergency.

And the signature line from our present Republican president, inheritor to Reagan’s political philosophy, is that this: “I don’t take duty in any respect.”

President Trump has blamed his administration’s laggardly response to the COVID-19 pandemic on everybody however himself — and in so doing has proved Reagan proper.

Authorities is the issue. Simply not in the way in which the fortieth president supposed.

“The federal government is nearly as good because the folks working it,” mentioned Margaret Black, 57, one in every of a lot of SoCal denizens I’ve spoken with in current days about what ought to and shouldn’t be anticipated of political leaders at a time like this.

“Should you can’t stand it, you shouldn’t be a part of it,” the Santa Monica resident instructed me as we mentioned the difficulties she’s confronted chasing down her authorities stimulus test — cash she badly wants after shedding her job with a survey firm final month.

But even amid irritating delays in receiving her bailout money, Black stays hopeful.

“The federal government is able to remarkably good issues,” she mentioned. “We glance to it for that.”

If nothing else adjustments after this horrific expertise, one optimistic improvement can be a recognition by most People that authorities is just not an obstacle to greatness.

It's what shapes and defines our lives in numerous methods. And it's an indispensable useful resource throughout instances of hardship and sacrifice.

To make sure, authorities has gotten quite a lot of issues flawed. Racial segregation, draconian drug insurance policies, a perverse tolerance of gun violence — none of this displays nicely on the knowledge of our elected leaders through the years.

Furthermore, even well-intended authorities applications could be executed sloppily. The poorly designed coronavirus reduction for small enterprise is one instance. Obamacare is one other.

“Authorities is just not good — no human establishment could be,” mentioned Cary Coglianese, a professor of regulation and political science on the College of Pennsylvania.

“However one motive authorities appears usually to fail is that it's tasked with probably the most troublesome duties of all,” he instructed me.

Extra on coronavirus’ financial influence

“Nobody asks, ‘How nicely is the personal market doing in responding to the pandemic?’ As a result of it's fully inconceivable that the personal market may deal with a catastrophe or different public disaster all by itself.”

A COVID-19 vaccine, as an illustration. Quite a few drug corporations are racing to discover a remedy. However their efforts are being funded largely by greater than $3 billion allotted by the U.S. authorities to make such analysis a actuality.

We’ll even be counting on federal authorities to forestall value gouging as soon as a vaccine turns into obtainable. In any other case, as I wrote final week, there’s nothing to cease drugmakers from charging as a lot as they suppose they will get away with.

“Much less authorities is just not higher,” mentioned Christa Jackson, 58, who needed to file for state unemployment advantages after her “nonessential” job as a dental hygienist disappeared. “You possibly can’t depend on personal business at a time like this.”

Amongst different tasks, authorities is tasked with defending us from ourselves. Seat belts, motorbike helmets, face masks — we might not get pleasure from sporting them, however we’re required to take action within the title of public security.

“Authorities is just not the issue,” mentioned Evelyn Brodkin, an affiliate professor of social service administration on the College of Chicago. “It’s the important actor in defending the well being, safety and well-being of the nation.”

That’s a sentiment I heard repeatedly from lecturers who've spent their careers learning authorities actions.

“Even small-government conservatives sometimes settle for the position of presidency in regulating and coordinating responses to crises that upset the financial safety and security of the populace,” mentioned Christian Grose, an affiliate professor of political science and public coverage at USC.

Grover Plunkett, an assistant professor of historical past and political science at Faulkner College, famous that People didn’t hesitate to hunt authorities intervention after the 9/11 terrorist assaults, together with limits on private freedom.

“Whereas there may be rather more inconvenience and lack of liberty boarding planes at the moment, most People are keen to undergo the inconvenience and the search of our individuals and belongings with out warrants,” he mentioned. “It's a liberty we're keen to forgo for safety.”

What conservatives sometimes overlook is that after Reagan branded authorities an issue, he mentioned this:

“Now, so there will probably be no misunderstanding, it's not my intention to eliminate authorities. It's, somewhat, to make it work — work with us, not over us; to face by our facet, not experience on our again. Authorities can and should present alternative, not smother it; foster productiveness, not stifle it.”

We are able to disagree on the place the strains might fall at any explicit second, and that’s positive.

However we’ll be higher off, and safer, and more healthy, if we get previous this infantile concept that authorities authority is by definition a nasty factor.

Choose authorities by those that maintain the reins of energy — and vote accordingly.

Don’t mistake their misdeeds, nonetheless, with our huge luck to have, within the phrases of President Lincoln, a authorities of the folks, by the folks, for the folks.