Several decades ago when I was a new Deputy Sheriff in another county, I had the good fortune to speak to one of the few FHP Troopers assigned to our county. He talked about the shortage of troopers in the county (a problem that persists in Florida today) and how if he needed help, he didn’t care what uniform the help wore. There were those in the profession that thought they were better than another agency, which at times created inter-agency friction. The lesson he shared was one I carried throughout my career.
The lesson also applies to recent news in these United States. Progressive congresswoman Cortez from New York disparaged former President Trump about the government failing to provide aid for those in Puerto Rico after a hurricane hit them, notably her grandmother. Something illustrative of a core difference between conservatives and progressives came to light when conservative commentator Matt Walsh, who is about the same age as Ms. Cortez, offered to help her grandmother. In the space of about 10 hours, he raised over $100,000. This help was then rejected by the Cortez family. Apparently Ms. Cortez was raised to believe only the government can help when you need it, whereas Mr. Walsh believes it is best to offer help via bypassing the bureaucracy of the federal government. By the way, the hurricane hit nearly 4 years ago. I write often about the federal bureaucracy and local funding or projects. One such example was here almost 10 years ago when an elderly widow needed her mobile home repaired.
Back then, the first choice was about $5,000 of repairs, which would take about 2 months to complete. I had raised over $1,000 over a weekend towards that. I was chastised by a citizen that promoted government dependence at a later meeting for “endangering” her government grant. The second choice was a taxpayer-funded site-built $64,000 home (which ended up costing over $73,000 and took over a year to build, plus had over 20% of the cost as administrative overhead). Guess which one she chose?
Congresswoman Cortez, a product of the New York City school system, has been educated to think that the only way to help those in need is via the government. Mr. Walsh still believes we can help one another, often without any government involvement. These situations are more examples of what Ron Paul spoke about when he said we dump problems on the government, they create a bureaucracy, and the cost goes up. The principle applies to hurricane relief just as it does to healthcare. Which direction are these United States headed, self-reliance or government dependence? If you need a clue, look at the federal budget.
Paul Henry