Another Reagan/Bush Legacy

Since 1981 the private sector has been worshiped by Republicans as a god to be left unfettered by government and regulated solely by market forces. Their mission to dismantle regulations, gut enforcement, and destroy the ability of government to protect the people from irresponsible and greed-driven decisions of business was largely successful. We see the results of this shortsighted but popular “the best government is a small government” mentality in the melt down of our financial system and the gulf oil crisis.

President Reagan was fond of saying that “government isn’t the solution, government is the problem”. He pushed through budget cuts and regulatory “reforms” to turn that simplistic slogan into national policy.  President Bush II picked up where Reagan left off by slashing enforcement agencies and filling key positions with folks who acted as inside lobbyists for the businesses they were charged with overseeing.

Now, Republican governors, senators and members of congress are trying to lay blame for BP’s spill on the Obama administration. The same “leaders” (who for the last year have relentlessly lambasted Obama for “government takeover” and “irresponsible spending”) are now begging for government money and action. It would be refreshing to hear one of them say that they were wrong… that regulations on business should be strong enough to protect the American people from irresponsible actions, that enforcement agencies should never have been downgraded and need to be strengthened, and that there are national priorities more important than deficit reduction.