Government - What it can't do

As citizens we need to realize that the government we created has serious limitations in what it can do. Our elected leaders will not take meaningful action if it involves offending a large voter block (seniors) or major campaign contributor (big business). Obama was given credit for a major, hard fought victory when he saved less than $2 billion dollars by not ordering more cold war jets that the military did not want. Congress has been unable to make simple adjustments to social security (peg increases to cost of living rather than wages) that would keep it solvent for decades longer. They don't even attempt to solve Medicare funding or lack there of. They are basically paralyzed when looking at the issues of today:
• Global warming, probably the greatest threat to my grandchildren – Don’t expect congress to take dramatic action to stem CO2 emissions. No $2/gallon tax on gas and no major carbon taxes on industry that will make a difference. They won’t happen until way too late in the game. The only hope is if we can innovate our way out of it. Government can fund innovation. We waste a lot of time and effort trying to get government to do the stuff it won’t do.
• Health care – The current system is broken beyond repair. Small businesses can’t afford it for their employees. Medium size businesses are headed that way. Fifty million Americans are uninsured and tens of millions more underinsured. Unfortunately the fixes involve those things the government won’t do. They won’t be able to carve out the 30% administrative expense needed to keep track of eligibility and all the different plan types because this is also known as insurance company revenue, a major employer and campaign contributor. Health care actually needs to be rationed by rational people. Everybody can’t have the greatest healthcare money can buy. So we do nothing and today we have nearly the worst healthcare of any western industrialized country.

What our government does give us is an economy where usually the best businessperson wins. Our efforts to get government to take action should be for things that promote businesses that will solve our problems. That is something government can do.