Resolution

By Crispin Sartwell

Back in the late 1950s, a prescient and deeply reactionary man named J. Bracken Lee - a former governor of Utah - had an interesting notion. He would try to get three fourths of the states to pass what he termed "The Ultimate Resolution," which would dissolve the federal government in the event that the national debt ever reached $6 trillion.

All federal employees - from the president to Supreme Court justices to Senators to janitors at the IRS - would be fired immediately, and each of the states would become - as Lee asserted they were in the first place - sovereign nations.

The Ultimate Resolution was actually introduced in nine state legislatures, though passed by none. Too bad, because had the thing become law, the (har har) "party of small government" - the Republicans - would have to rein in the infinite bloat over which they have presided or face the loss of their jobs.

The national debt is about $7.5 trillion, and the Republicans just voted to raise the debt ceiling. Deficit spending is a massively tempting practice: you can increase services while cutting or at least not increasing taxes. Thus the debt is an index not only of gluttony but of gutlessness.

Of course, let me quickly add that had the Democrats taken the White House this year, the debt would have grown at at least the same rate, and it would have been Democrats voting to raise the ceiling as Republicans howled - everyone, as always, concerned only to score their little political points.

Kerry proposed to roll back Bush's tax cuts. But he proposed to cut taxes on the middle class. He proposed (more or less) to extend health insurance to everyone who was uninsured, including paying for everyone's prescription drugs. He supported full funding for No Child Left Behind, whereas in my opinion the only good thing about Bush's education policy is that he doesn't put his money where his mouth is.

On alternate Wednesdays, when he wasn't pledging his sacred honor to withdraw, he was accusing Bush of waging the Iraq war "on the cheap" and hinting he'd increase forces and aid. Etc.

Unfortunately, there are no circumstances of insolvency that entails the disintegration of the federal government. The idea that the Congress fixes its own debt ceiling - whether it's a dollar or a thousand trillion dollars - while simultaneously being the body does the spending, is a formula for self-indulgence on an herculean scale.

That a few more cycles of slow growth and profligate spending will double the debt and lead to the collapse of the dollar and perhaps a world-wide recession, which in turn will massively increase the federal debt and so on, is a minor matter to people who are more concerned to promise you the moon so you'll vote for them.

There used to be a libertarian wing of the Republican party, represented by folks like Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. Those days are so far gone it's not even funny. There are two wings of the Republican party: neo-conservative militaristic expansionists and religious bigots intent on repealing the Bill of Rights.

If those folks, along with Kerry-style mush-mouthed liberals are the only choices we've got, we all need a big old dose of J. Bracken Lee.

It's just too damn bad that - when debt in the trillions seemed impossible - Lee's movement didn't get the Ultimate Resolution on the books. We'd be free today.