Restoring Americans’ Faith in Washington
Washington,
Oct 14 -
Gallup recently asked Americans to describe the federal government in just one word or phrase. Fully 72% of the responses were negative. Among the biggest criticisms are that Washington is too big, corrupt, incompetent, confused, wasteful, complicated, broken, bloated, and inefficient. Large majorities of the country also say government is too intrusive and too powerful.
And that’s not all. According to another recent survey, investors actually fear policy mistakes by Uncle Sam more than they fear “inflation, terrorism, a housing double dip, a weak dollar, poor earnings or any other potential risk to the economy.”
How did Washington become so hated and seen as the biggest threat to prosperity? Because the folks in charge piled up trillions of dollars in debt with little restraint, created a political economy with taxpayer bailouts, took over entire industries, imposed huge new costs on employers, vilified people in the private sector, and – through it all – totally ignored what the people actually wanted them to do.
Americans have lost faith in Washington. We believe that trust can still be restored, but we know it must be earned with efforts to balance the budget, downsize government, truly end bailouts, improve health care by empowering families, increase economic freedom, and reduce the power of the federal government.
