Why no Long-Term Thinking?
By Jan Larson (10/23/06)
In the recent Bill O’Reilly interview with President Bush, O’Reilly was questioning the president on the subject of Iraq. I found the he president’s position on the importance of finishing the job in Iraq to be quite profound. He said (paraphrasing) that if Iraq were to be abandoned and left to fall under the control of Iran and/or other radical Islamic groups and if Iran then developed nuclear weapons, people in 20 or 30 years would be asking why no one could see this coming and did anything about it?
The President has a long-term view of the Middle East. Few others do, just as few others, in Washington especially, have a long-term view of anything.
In another 20 to 30 years, either retirees are going to wonder why their Social Security benefits are not anywhere close to the amounts they’ve been promised or young workers are going to wonder why they are paying taxes through the nose to support retirees.
The mathematics and demographics of the Social Security program have been well known for over 20 years, but little has been done to head off the impending train wreck. Why? Because few, if any, of those in Congress now will be around when the wreck happens so they concern themselves with today’s issues, leaving the fixing of Social Security to some future Congress. The flaw in that logic is that it will be too late to fix it. Everyone can see this coming, but no one is willing to fight the fight to fix the problem if they believe it will cost votes in the next election.
The same can be said for the tax code. The thousands and thousands of pages of tax rules and regulations hamstring Americans and American businesses each and every year, draining the economy of billions of dollars spent on compliance costs. The tax code could be scrapped and replaced with a tax system, the Fair Tax, which would free up those billions, and make America the preferred country for doing business in the world, creating millions of jobs in the process.
Why doesn’t this get done? Because Congress collectively and the individual members of Congress would lose much of their power if the current tax system were scrapped. Congress derives much of its power from the manipulation of the tax code and the handing out of tax breaks to favored groups. More jobs for Americans? The best place in the world for companies to do business? Can’t be concerned about that if it means losing power today.
One day, however, each and every current member of the House and Senate will be dead and gone. There will be no more power to wield or favors to be doled, but future Americans will be still saddled with the mess the dearly departed leave behind. It will be up to a future Congress to deal with that problem.
How long will politicians continue to talk, but do little or nothing about border security? The American people want a secure border, but today’s politicians (of both parties) seem to be more concerned about courting Hispanic votes in the next election. One day, and maybe that day has already passed, terrorists will enter the United States across that unsecured border. One day, those terrorists may kill thousands of Americans and if that day comes, there will be blood on the hands of today’s House and Senate. Will it be worth it?
It has often been said that Americans have a short attention span. Much as a child may want candy and ice cream for dinner every night, we want things and we want things now, the future be damned. Politicians play to these short-term desires, ignoring the ramifications of short-term thinking on the long-term future.
Most parents don’t serve candy and ice cream to their children for dinner. Children need nutritious meals in order to grow up strong. It is time that our leaders in Washington stop catering to the short-term wishes of the American public and start addressing problems from a long-term perspective. If they do, then maybe, there will be a long-term future for this country.
Copyright ©2006 Jan A. Larson All rights reserved.
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