Did you ever wonder what happens to government programs that outlive their usefulness? One of my favorites was the subsidy for raising the animals that produce mohair. It was put in place about the time of World War II because there was a worry that there would not be enough of the material to use in making military uniforms. By 1960, however, the American military had adopted synthetic fibers for uniforms and no longer needed the mohair. That meant that the mohair subsidy program was no longer needed. So what happened? The government continued to provide assistance and price supports for mohair producers until 1996 when these subsidies were partially phased out.
The mohair subsidy illustrates one of the most important points about existing government programs: essentially no one in Washington pays attention to them. The members of Congress do not get publicity for eliminating bad programs; they are always battling to add new ones. Some of this is ideological; most liberals do not think that the government can fail, but that is not the main force. The real problem is that there is no constituency for cutting the waste out of government. Oh, during elections there are the candidates who crusade against waste and fraud, but when they reach Washington most of them quickly change their tune. There simply are not enough members of Congress who care about failed programs.
The lack of interest in jettisoning failures is unfortunate. America spends hundreds of billions of dollars on programs and purchases that really help next to no one. It may finally be time for this to change. One idea would be to have the House of Representatives select one program per week to eliminate. Each week, they could announce the turkey of the week among government programs. That target would either be voted out of existence or cut and reshaped so that it returned to something like its original purpose. This would be a symbolic move since there are a great many more failed programs than the elimination of one per week could handle. Nevertheless, it would be a move that would return the idea of fiscal responsibility to Washington. Let the people who support these programs explain why it is a good idea to continue with them.
Of course, it would be still better if there were an omnibus bill that eliminated large numbers of failed programs. Such a measure, however, would get caught up in the endless fighting over the size of government rather than focusing on individual programs that need to go. It would be best to start small.
The mohair subsidy illustrates one of the most important points about existing government programs: essentially no one in Washington pays attention to them. The members of Congress do not get publicity for eliminating bad programs; they are always battling to add new ones. Some of this is ideological; most liberals do not think that the government can fail, but that is not the main force. The real problem is that there is no constituency for cutting the waste out of government. Oh, during elections there are the candidates who crusade against waste and fraud, but when they reach Washington most of them quickly change their tune. There simply are not enough members of Congress who care about failed programs.
The lack of interest in jettisoning failures is unfortunate. America spends hundreds of billions of dollars on programs and purchases that really help next to no one. It may finally be time for this to change. One idea would be to have the House of Representatives select one program per week to eliminate. Each week, they could announce the turkey of the week among government programs. That target would either be voted out of existence or cut and reshaped so that it returned to something like its original purpose. This would be a symbolic move since there are a great many more failed programs than the elimination of one per week could handle. Nevertheless, it would be a move that would return the idea of fiscal responsibility to Washington. Let the people who support these programs explain why it is a good idea to continue with them.
Of course, it would be still better if there were an omnibus bill that eliminated large numbers of failed programs. Such a measure, however, would get caught up in the endless fighting over the size of government rather than focusing on individual programs that need to go. It would be best to start small.
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