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Closing government offices and opening our mindsBy Ken Root I take my share of heat from readers of this publication when I write about consolidating county governments and closing post offices. If being a good columnist is based on hitting the "hot buttons" of readers, then I rank up there pretty high! I don't know if we need to have funerals to mark the passing of government offices so that everyone can go through the stages of grief before arriving at acceptance, but modern reality is that government, at all levels, is running out of money and something has to give. With many months of advance warning, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced his "Blueprint for Stronger Service at USDA," which means the agency is going to operate with less people and less offices than in the past. "I don't care as long as they don't close my office," is the normal response. We all know that doesn't work. It is like saying the federal offices are staffed by "faceless bureaucrats." All you have to do is think of those who are employed by your Extension, Farm Service Agency or Natural Resources Conservation Service to know that they all have faces and families and are, in the vast majority of cases, caring and productive public servants. Every poll shows that Americans want smaller government. But we only want to eliminate that part that does not impact our lives. This is similar to polls over the past two decades that showed 70 percent of Americans believed Congress should be "thrown out" but the poll also showed that 70 percent of those polled said that their congressional representative was doing a good job. We only vote for three members of Congress and most of us like the incumbent more than their competitors. For all the justifiable criticism that Congress gets for partisan bickering and gridlock, we put them there and we may want to get rid of 434 representatives and 98 senators but we vote to keep our own. That brings me to the only "hopeful" message of this essay. Every U.S. Secretary of Agriculture since Earl Butz has tried to cut the size of the USDA. All have failed. That means Vilsack has to be more persistent than his predecessors or he has to have a bigger stick. That stick is the public debt and it is larger than ever before. The secretary, however, may not have the political will to alienate an even larger number of people in rural America by eliminating face-to-face services offered by his employees. Will it gain votes or lose votes to close USDA offices between now and November? From another angle: Will a rural constituent drive by a closed post office on the way to the polls and not seek some retribution at the ballot box? It just doesn't make political sense to do much this year and it won't make sense to take voluntary action if re-elected for another term. The super committee failed to map out a spending reduction because there was no political advantage in doing so. The only deadline is doomsday. When that will come is debatable. Some say it will be 2013 (for the government) and others feel it won't come until the U.S. dollar is worthless. Did I mention that this is the "hopeless" portion of this commentary? Within all of this malaise, we are the ones to blame. We want more from government than we are willing to finance. We do not wish to admit that money given to us by government is our own money. We are paying millions of people to take it from us and redistribute it. We are angry because they are doing what we hired them to do. Across the pond, the European Union is going through gyrations caused by unsound political actions, resulting in severe economic strains on the economies of many member countries. Greek politicians made it possible for employees of government and business to retire at 50 years of age with pensions that were unsustainable. France is now re-evaluating its 35-hour work week, and all countries are now facing a financial meltdown if they don't become more fiscally responsible. So, cheer up; we will be able to see Europe go under before we do! If you thought the last paragraph would have all the answers, you are right. We need our government to cut spending and raise taxes. We need to have a balanced budget every year. We need to launch a national campaign to encourage individuals to save money. We need to pull out of all areas of the world where our presence is causing hostile reaction. We also need to learn to do all business transactions on the Internet, from computers in our homes that are on a low-voltage system that dims our need for energy until such time that we can produce all of it from renewable sources. To do all this, we need to elect politicians who will work for half the money we now pay them and cut the pay of the government workforce by like amount. Really, you don't need to thank me. Just look in the mirror and realize that you are the one who got us into this mess. Editor's note: Ken Root has been an agricultural reporter for 37 years. Root now does daily radio and television programming and is a columnist. He can be reached at kenroot@gmail.com.
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