Dan "Poisen Pen" Popkey
had an article yesterday revealing that anti-government candidate Vaughn Ward's wife works at Fannie Mae, which is now 75% government owned. I guess there is some news value to that, as it does expose a bit of hypocrisy, but it really doesn't tell us much about Ward as a candidate. However, this quote does:
Ward also has said, "A government job isn't a real job. True wealth creation comes from small business."
This is a flat out Fox News talking point, oft repeated by wingers, so let's unpack it a bit.
A government job is not a real job. Well. I guess, then, no one in Ward's family has a real job, preferring to feed at the government trough, while dissing it. Talk about biting the hand that feeds it. Also, given that our military is now all volunteer and the troops work for pay, those are government jobs. Not real ones, though. Please, Vaughn, keep telling our troops that they don't have real jobs. Police? Not a real job? Firefighters? Not real? Coast Guard rescue swimmers who will drop from a helicopter into an icy and stormy sea to rescue a fisherman? Not real? The helicopter pilot who fights to keep the aircraft aloft in a storm to help the rescue? What a bunch of pussies, the lot of them.
Next point, implied when taking the two sentences together: only jobs that create wealth are real. Well, okay Vaughn, garbage collection doesn't create wealth; not real. Doctors and nurses, while they make a nice living, don't create wealth. Not real. Teachers and professors? Not real.
True wealth creation comes from small business. I agree that small business does create wealth, but I disagree with the "true wealth creation" part of it. What Ward is saying is that when it comes to creating wealth, only small business matters. Only small business gets it done. Well, Vaughn, that's just stupid.
Take away all the jobs noted above. And roads. And traffic signals. And air traffic controllers. And courts and judges and prosecutors. And bank regulators. What will we have? A third world country in which it's nearly impossible to create wealth. Think life without government is so special? Move to Somalia.
Vaughn, yes, government workers might be "takers" as Rush likes to say (even though they pay their share of taxes, too), but they set the environment in which citizens can succeed and create wealth. It's an over used analogy but a good one: Try to play a football game without the referees. It would just descend into chaos.
Supporters of Ward,
Adam Graham for instance, might be tempted to criticize this post by saying that wingers don't want to do away with all government, they just want to keep it small and efficient. They might acknowledge that policemen and soldiers are okay. But to that concession I say, tell me exactly what part of government you'd do away with. Don't just generically attack government while wrapped in the flag.