LETTER: Texas disaster exposes falacy in shrink-government ideology

To Ozaukee Press:

How much proof do people need? Last year, we had the Trump administration’s grossly incompetent response to the Covid pandemic, which ran right up to the lack of organization around the vaccine distribution.

Now, this past week, we witnessed the abject suffering of millions of Texans because their abortion-obsessed governor has a hands-off approach to governing.

Hey, Lone Star State, how is deregulating the power industry and creating a totally autonomous power grid working out for you?

These are two spectacular examples of the GOP’s principle that the government that governs least governs the best. It’s a beautiful concept for stuffing money in the pockets of your wealthy donors. But not so much for the people on the ground. They are the ones who have to deal with the crises that hit them.

I’m not suggesting there be total government control of everything. There are policies that the public and the private sector do well, and they should handle them, with perhaps some participation from the other side.

There is a middle ground between having government running all things and having hardly any government at all that we need to find to move ahead and handle future catastrophes, because, yes, they are coming. Climate change denial is one aspect of the no-government crowd that will add to our problems.

People who hate seeing government spend money fail to recognize that the cost of reacting to emergencies is far beyond that of preparing for them in the first place.

Persisting that the ideal world features a minimal government is detached from reality and costs us lives and money.

Keith Schmitz
Milwaukee