liberalism

It has become fashionable lately for those in the media as well as the political class to ponder over the question of whether or not our political system is “broken”.  Most recently we have seen this in the course of the debate over whether or not (and by how much) to raise our country’s national debt ceiling.  From the lowliest scribe all the way up to Obama himself, references to “broken” or “dysfunctional” government have been everywhere.

But are they right?  Is government truly broken?  In short, the answer is yes, but not in the sense that liberals would have everyone to believe.

Our federal government is not broken because of any recent events or failure to compromise and “get things done” on anyone’s part.  The breakage came under the crush of everything that has been heaped upon a system that wasn’t designed to carry its present load.

For the last sixty to eighty years liberals have worked to make Washington the epicenter of American political life and the arbiter of whether or not and how anything and everything can be done.  In the process the federal government has appropriated power to itself that it wasn’t constructed to handle, and that is why it is broken.

Let's get one thing straight. The government and its misguided housing policies caused our current financial mess. And, as a result, the government should help fix it.

That said, exactly "what" should have been fixed, "how" and for "how much" are the right places to focus our attention. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't make sure everyone knows exactly how we got in this mess.

The origins lie in the Clinton Administration's misguided attempt to raise the percentage of homeowners in America by forcing banks to give loans to people with, shall we say, less than stellar credit, (those "sub-prime" mortgages you keep hearing about).