Small government has been the mantra of the Republican
Party for a long time. It was once
an intelligent critique of the excesses of certain specific programs, but it
has become a mindless
prescription for destroying the country’s power to govern itself. Just how mindless? Until recently, it was hard to know for
sure. In 2009, amid a huge recession, they
fought intensely to stop the Obama stimulus, and
their alternative – only four Senate Republicans opposed it - consisted of
nothing but tax cuts. (Michael
Grunwald, The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era 218
(2012).) Had
they prevailed, the American economy would likely have gone into a prolonged
depression. But it was uncertain whether
they really meant it. Since Obama didn’t
need their votes, they may have judged that this irresponsible posturing would
be harmless, at least in the short run.
As it turned out, the Obama stimulus was too
small, but it wouldn’t be fair to blame Republicans for their inability to
see into the future.
Now, however, as millions of
Americans face destitution and homelessness, we can see just how destructive
their ideology has become. Congress is stuck. At issue is
whether to extend a $600 weekly increase in unemployment
insurance and a moratorium on evictions.
On the merits, this is easy: democracies are not supposed to
deliberately devastate their own people.
Politically, too, this should be a no-brainer: the parties should be
competing for credit on rescuing voters.
The Republicans were willing to increase the national debt massively
with their 2017 tax cut, which gave huge benefits to the rich with almost no
effect on wages or growth. Yet
now they are suddenly skittish about
additional deficits.
This is the biggest economic catastrophe since the 1930s. Millions of jobs have been destroyed. The United States still does not have the
capacity for rapid tests for the disease, or enough protective equipment for
hospital workers. State governments are
under economic pressure to reduce their own workforces, crippling their own
capacities and driving up unemployment even further. Bold and big responses will be needed. Trump can’t be bothered even to try to
control the disease, much less its economic effects. Biden will almost certainly replace him in
January. But the early Obama experience
shows that Congressional Republicans will do everything they can to prolong the
disaster. They can’t support a stimulus
even now, when it is manifestly in their political interest. They will certainly try to make a Biden
presidency fail.
The United States desperately needs a responsible,
pro-market conservatism. The smartest
free market advocates understand that a well-functioning capitalism needs
a large government apparatus. We need
more market competition and more reliable social insurance. Government must make sure that businesses
stay honest, that they don’t cheat customers and employees. It must address climate change, another
crisis that elicits even more extreme and foolish denial from Trump. And provide public
services that the market won’t supply: don’t you wish he hadn’t fired the pandemic response team he inherited from Obama?
Political efforts to cripple the capacities of the
government are not peculiar to Trump, though he’s unusually unsubtle about
it. They have become part of the
ideology of the Republican Party. The
Republican politician who has come off best in the age of Trump is Mitt Romney,
who has shown integrity and courage. But
as a presidential candidate, he said this:
“Did you know that government – federal, state, and local – under
President Obama, has grown to consume almost forty percent of our economy? We’re only inches away from ceasing to be a
free economy.” We would be freer without
roads, bridges, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, police, firefighters,
environmental protection. Of course much
of this is politically untouchable, so the drive for small government
inevitably focuses on spending that has no powerful protectors – public goods
that benefit everyone in general and no one in particular. Such as public health.
The need for a strong and vigorous government is particularly
acute in emergencies. The next president
will enter office, as Obama did, amid a worldwide crisis. If the Republicans have any voice at all,
they will be the party of inaction, as they are today.
There are, of course, extremists within the Democratic Party
as well, some of whom repudiate capitalism and want to abolish the police. But they don’t control their party. Even if the Democrats win both houses of
Congress, their leadership knows that its House majority depends on moderate
members from swing districts that could easily become Republican again. If there is a comparable moderate wing in the
Republican Party, it is the Never Trump Republicans, who remain in political
exile. Conservatism’s only hope is for
the extremists now in command to face electoral defeat of spectacular
proportions. And the country’s only hope is for a unified government that can
actually address the frightening problems we face.