The right in their never ending quest to gut our government, consistently tries to paint it as inept. Often you will hear them ask; what program has our government undertaken that has ever been a success?
What a ridiculous question.
With Republicans in charge of our government for so many of the last 30 years it is no wonder that some might begin to feel that way. After all, it has been Republican economic policy that has nearly bankrupted our nation. It has been bankrupt Republican policies, incompetent Republican leadership and its willful neglect of our Government's proper regulatory role that has made our nation weaker and our Government appear to be incompetent. When run properly, it is not. Witness our current administration's excellent response to the recent devastating tornado damage in Alabama
Here, in no particular order, are just some of the things that our Government has done right and which have benefited millions of Americans:
* The opening of the west - Much of the Western US as we know it is the creation of various federal programs. Starting with government-sponsored explorations of the West in 19th century. It continued with the federal government providing money and troops for the removal of the American Indians. The government also sold public land to settlers for low prices and sometimes even gave it away. Railroads, which spurred so much growth in the West, would not have been built without massive subsidies from the federal government. Today, farming in many Western areas is made possible by federal water projects, substantial parts of the ranching industry are subsidized by the artificially low grazing fees charged on federal land, and mining is made more profitable by dirt cheap access to federal land. Cities like Los Angeles and Las Vegas would dry up and blow away without the federally funded dam and canal projects providing water to those notoriously dry regions. So it is ironic that while anti-big government sentiment is very strong in parts of this region, the West literally would not and could not exist as it does today without the sustained help of the federal government.
* Social Security and Medicare, programs which have literally kept millions of senior citizens out of the gutter. And don't tell me that Social Security is broke because it is not and would never be if we did not raid its trust fund. Oh and by the way, Medicare controls costs better than the private sector. It's administrative costs equal 2% of total program cost; Most private insurers are around 20%.
* Putting a man on the moon and all of the technological innovations that arose from that endeavor.
* The Interstate Highway
* The Lincoln
* Hoover Damn
* The Panama Canal
* The G.I. Bill
* Rural Electrification.
* National Institute of Health and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention
* Clean Water Act. and Clean Air Act. - Only Republicans want them weakened.
* Consumer Product Safety Commission - Only Republicans want this weakened.
* The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration which includes that National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center
* Public Schools and Public University
* World War II
* The Manhattan
* Antitrust Laws
* Federal Deposit Insurance
* Civil Rights Act
* The Voting Rights Act - Which Republicans are currently attempting to weaken.
* Workplace Safety (OSHA) & Workers Compensation Laws
* Finding and putting an end to Osama Bin Laden. - Tell me again why did we forget about him under the previous administration and go into Iraq
There are so many things that government does well (who has the time?) and could do much better if only we had better and more honest leaders. It is a fallacy to say that government can't perform, especially when the right votes to starve it of funds and keep it from doing what it does.
It would be nice if Republicans were more interested in supporting and growing the backbone of our nation, our working middle class, rather than scheming new tax cuts for the ultra wealthy and worrying about the private reproductive issues of our citizens.
To my right leaning friends, we could debate this further but I fear you are at a disadvantage as the facts are not on your side. Unless you make them up, which is what they do on fixed news.
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