The Purpose of Government

by Errington C. Thompson, MD –

Many years ago, a conservative friend decided he needed to challenge me. So he asked me one of those popular conservative questions at the time: what does the government do for you? This conversation took place over 30 years ago.

This was an era when conservatives said they would “like to shrink the size of government,” though they never said how small they wanted it to be. In 1986 Ronald Reagan had said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help’.” And in 2001 anti-tax activist Grover Norquist said he didn’t want “to abolish government”; he just wanted “to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

So, back to the original question. My friend argued that the government doesn’t do much for the average American. Yes, the government maintains the roads. We get clean water to drink. The government maintains our sewage system, which decreases disease. Finally, the government protects us with our military. In his conservative mind, that’s all the government was good for. But, in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, it’s important to note that our government does much more.

We began hearing about a disturbance off the African coast that could develop into a hurricane in mid-September. We knew this because of a sophisticated network of satellites that orbit the earth and give reams of data to the team of meteorologists at the National Weather Service. These meteorologists and other scientists, working for our government, use sophisticated modeling to track and predict the path of this tropical disturbance. This data is then given to the smiling faces on CBS or the Weather Channel.

As the disturbance turned into a tropical depression and a hurricane, we could follow all this in real time. The cyclone slammed into Cuba on Sept. 26-27. We constantly got detailed, sophisticated information as the National Weather Service flew airplanes into this raging hurricane to learn more about it. Twenty-four to 36 hours before landfall, we knew the storm was going to hit the western coast of Florida, somewhere around Fort Myers, as it turned away from the Tampa-St. Petersburg area. We also knew, a day ahead of time, that this was going to be a major hurricane—and sure enough, it hit Florida as a Category 4, with 155-mph winds (at 157 mph a storm becomes Category 5).

Our government gave us the tools to decide whether to batten down the hatches, ride out the storm, or batten down the hatches and evacuate the area. For some reason, conservatives believe this is only important when they are being affected

The second part of this equation is this: local and state officials should have the equipment to help rescue Americans who are stranded and need help. And the third and final piece of the public safety and recovery equation is cleanup and rebuilding—and not just roads and bridges, but infrastructure, power grids, beaches, homes, piers, cellphone towers … and help with insurance to replace cars and factories and schools and jobs and much, much more.

None of these expenditures are trivial. This is the way government should work. So, the government does much more than maintain roads and protect us from invasion.

Wall Street does not devolve into chaos because of rules that we have set up through our government. In theory, businesses can’t do anything they want to, including poisoning US citizens, because of government rules and regulations. We need an active government that works in our best interest. That promotes justice. We need a government that helps to protect us from harm.

Karma

Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida, has petitioned the Biden administration for disaster relief. He is asked that we put aside partisan differences to help the citizens of Florida. Joe Biden has pledged support. He did not take the time to point out the ironic position that Governor DeSantis is in.

If you recall, in late October 2012, Hurricane Sandy slammed into the New York/New Jersey, causing widespread damage. It is estimated that Sandy caused almost $70 billion worth of damage in the United States. Then in his first term in the House of Representatives, Representative Ron DeSantis voted against the funding bill to rebuild New York and New Jersey. He argued that the bill was just another “put it on the credit card mentality” bill that he opposed. As governor, he doesn’t seem to want to play politics. He doesn’t seem interested in finding spending cuts to offset the federal spending that he wants to help rebuild his state. In fact, he suddenly seems happy about the “credit card mentality.”

PACT Act

Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022 may be the worst name for an act. This bill clears much red tape for our veterans. This should have been a bill that quickly passed both houses of Congress.

Basically, for unclear reasons, our US military burned their waste while we were in Iraq and Afghanistan. (There is a reason that burning trash is illegal in most cities.) Our veterans were exposed to various toxins by being around these burning pits. Some of our veterans came down with weird diseases. But it is hard to prove that these burn pits directly caused these diseases. One would figure that the VA would give the benefit of the doubt to our veterans. No. We didn’t give them the benefit of the doubt.

The bill quickly passed the House and Senate. Then because of technical error, the bill needed to be rewritten and voted on again. It passed the House, but 25 Republicans in the Senate switched their votes from Yes to No. Republicans were holding up much-needed aid for no good reason. There was a lot of lobbying. The bill was brought up again. The embarrassed Republicans flipped their votes again, and the bill passed. This bill gives our veterans much-needed relief. I have no comment on the pettiness of the GOP. It is mind-boggling.

Geoffrey Berman

I just finished reading Geoffrey Berman’s book, Holding the Line. The book recounts his two-and-a-half years as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Mr. Berman points to his many successes during his time there. He also talks about the tug-of-war he had with the Department of Justice, specifically with Attorney General William Barr. Of course, Mr. Berman will paint himself in the best light possible. As long as you understand that, I highly recommend this book.

I want to point out a chapter that I found somewhat surprising. The chapter involved an investigation into former US Senator and Secretary of State John Kerry. Donald Trump seemed unhappy that John Kerry continued communicating with the Iranian Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif. As you recall, Donald Trump believed that all things Iranian were terrible. From the moment he was elected, he tried to pull us out of the US-Europe-Iran nuclear arms agreement. Eventually, Trump pulled the US out of the Joint Agreement because he said it was “bad for America.”

Donald Trump tweeted about John Kerry and “shadow diplomacy” on two separate occasions. Suggesting that John Kerry may be illegally acting against America’s interests. As usual, Donald Trump produced no factual information to support his allegation.

High-ranking officials in the Justice Department met with the national security unit of the Southern District of New York. The Justice Department referred John Kerry’s Iranian-related conduct for investigation and possible prosecution. The question was, did John Kerry violate the Logan Act as a private citizen?

The Logan Act, written in 1799, says, “Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both….”

No one has ever been convicted under the Logan Act. Yet, this is what the Trump administration was pushing. To the credit of the Southern District of New York, they thoroughly investigated the allegations. After a year of investigating, they found that John Kerry didn’t violate any ethics statutes or laws. They decided not to prosecute. This decision did not go over well in the Justice Department. Under Bill Barr’s direction, the case was taken away from the Southern District and given to the district of Maryland. That district investigated and again found no reason to proceed with the prosecution.

The fact that the Department of Justice decided to investigate John Kerry based on the unhinged tweets of Donald Trump is alarming. According to the timeline provided by Mr. Berman, every time Donald Trump tweeted some nonsense about John Kerry, the Department of Justice picked up the phone and pressured the Southern District of New York. They wanted to know where their prosecution was. Why was the Southern District moving so slowly?

This is not how our justice system should work. Thankfully, despite Donald Trump, our justice system seemed to work; the Southern District of New York resisted the pressure, at least in this case.

There is only one month between now and the mid-term elections. VOTE! This is the only way we turn America toward a “more perfect union.” Vote.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed here, as well as assertions of facts, are those of the author. They do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of The Urban News.