No wonder it's shocking news. It seems this still new president may have meant what he said about cutting waste and fat out of the federal budget, which means putting the multi-state Delta Regional Authority out of business. Who ever heard of such a thing? For here's a federal anti-poverty agency actually shutting its doors after all those years of benefiting mainly the anti-poverty workers who drew paychecks for staying on the payroll in one exalted capacity or another.
To quote one Chris Masingill, co-chairman of aforesaid Delta Regional Authority: "It's one thing to have a budget reduction, to have your resources cut down. What the president is recommending is a complete elimination. That's the first time that that's ever happened." Here's hoping it won't be the last as similar make-work agencies across the country disappear from a bloated federal budget--like the burdens they are on the federal and state taxpayers, who actually have to earn their money by doing something productive.
But that's not the way Mayor JoAnn Bush of Lake Village, Ark., sees things. She points out that all this money courtesy of the federal government--that's you and the rest of us, fellow citizens and taxpayers--has gone to things like restoring old buildings in town like the one that now houses city hall. Not to mention a new firetruck and water lines for new businesses. Why leave such development to the free market in a supposedly still free country when Uncle Sugar stands ready to supply ready cash?
Since it was begun during the Clinton administration, the regional program has thrown some $163 million all around the Mississippi watershed, subsidizing about 26,000 jobs. Which strikes folks like Mayor Bush as much better than just letting the forces of creative destruction rip and so provide those jobs or eliminate them. Instead, why not believe that, if the people of the Delta would first build things like football stadiums and community centers, the people will come?
Everybody in state government, like Asa Hutchinson, governor and overseer of state funds, seems all for these projects--so long as his part of government doesn't have to pay for them. The Delta Regional Authority, he says, "has been a very important partner in economic development in Arkansas," by which he would seem to mean the government's economic development. He says financing it with the taxpayers' dollars "has been a crucial factor in attracting industry, building infrastructure and meeting the needs of our communities in the Arkansas Delta. I am confident that Congress will take a second look at the budget. Whether these needs are met through the [Delta Regional Authority] or another vehicle, it is important not to shift additional cost burdens to the state." That is, he's all for the DRA so long as somebody else is footing the bill for it. Guess who that might be? We the People would seem a fair guess.
Then there's the well-named Citizens Against Government Waste, an outfit in the nation's capital whose president, Tom Schatz, pointed out: "Every wasteful or duplicative program or agency has a constituency that will fight tooth and nail against any change in how bureaucratic business gets done. [U]tilizing his private-sector experience, President Trump has boldly challenged this status quo, brought private-sector disruptors into his cabinet, and proposed a thoughtful and fiscally conservative budget." Mr. Schatz is seconded by David Ray, state director of Americans for Prosperity Arkansas, who urges folks to take an unflinching look at the Delta Regional Authority and other such big spenders with your money, Mr. and Mrs. Arkansas Taxpayer.
But one of Arkansas' congressmen, the independent-minded Bruce Westerman from Hot Springs, sounds as if he's not ready to join the stampede for those federal dollars that are actually your own: "When we look at the overall picture of the deficit spending, we have got to make cuts somewhere. This administration is trying to look at how they can best take care of the spending problems that we've got."
Right now this congressman may be an exception to the dismal rule in Washington, but his day will come. As surely as 2 plus 2 equals 4. In the end there's no arguing with simple arithmetic, for the gods of old maxims--like Waste Not, Want Not--will have the last say sooner or later. And it's getting later every day.
Paul Greenberg is the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer and columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Editorial on 04/30/2017