LA Op-Ed Calls For Federal Takeover Of States’ “Important Functions”

Harold Meyerson has an op-ed that ran in today’s Los Angeles Times in which he laments that states don’t get to run big deficits like the federal government. In charitably using the word “Keynesian” (I would prefer the term “untenable” or perhaps “obscene”) to describe what the federal government is doing on the deficit front, Mr. Meyerson longs for a world where the federal government is responsible for programs and functions currently controlled by states.

In virtually every other major democracy, either the national government pays for most of the programs (such as education) that states and localities pay for here, or their states and provinces are allowed to run deficits during downturns.
I’ll grant you that California can’t get a bailout for itself, but that really shouldn’t be its task. What it should be demanding is that the federal government assume responsibility (whether temporarily or permanently is a larger discussion) for important functions in every state — functions such as education, so that grade-schoolers don’t have to share their teacher with 40 other kids until the economy comes back.

The abolishment of state’s rights: it’s for the children! This bit comes after Meyerson calls for a straight-up bailout for California on par with what the EU is looking at for Greece before discarding the idea since, “having the feds help only one state out of a problem that the other 49 also confront is a classic nonstarter”. How having the “feds” control one state’s functions (and thus assuming the costs) would be any more of a starter isn’t explored. Meyerson also ignores the fact that Greece is a poster child for the sort of federally-dominated economy Meyerson is agitating for in the U.S. The implications of a living, breathing icon of a socialist economic state coming to the brink of insolvency isn’t discussed either.
California is where it is today because of a bloated government that pays far too much to pensioned ex-government employees. It’s beholden to special interests, cronyism and labor unions. It has one of the unfriendliest business climates in the nation. It made no effort to reign in spending when it became obvious the economy was in a recession, instead voting to increase government salaries. It’s pensions are an ever-increasing drag on the taxpayer, laden with retroactive increases, double-salary loopholes and legislative backdoors that offset any attempts at reform.
While Meyerson wistfully wonders what an America where the federal government ran everything would look like, people with eyes and the will to see don’t have to wonder. They can look at California as a microcosm, or, if one wants to be more continental, Greece.