Last week, a new survey was released that found, as The Washington Post’s T.R. Reid reported, “Americans feel disconnected from government and ignored by the political process … with nearly half of the electorate saying they have no impact on what the government does.”
Maybe that’s because we don’t trust people in government. We’ve heard plenty about missing WMDs and deflated Medicare costs. I thought, what makes us angry – and I’ll bet just a little disconnected – is the lying.
But on the same page with Reid’s story was an article about the GOP’s reaction to the incoming Spanish prime minister and that the few “coalition members” that are in Iraq are getting cold feet. The story included this:
“Congressional Republicans rallied to President Bush’s defense yesterday, chiding Spanish voters for ousting a government that had backed his Iraq policy and dismissing anti-administration sentiment among many Europeans and Muslims as behind-the-times thinking.”
“Behind-the-times thinking”?
The article also quotes House intelligence committee Chairman Porter Goss (R-Fla.): “There are still some people in what is referred to, by some, as Old Europe, that are seeing this a different way. . . . The respect level that the United States of America has on a global basis is very high. I’m not talking about street popularity. I’m talking respect.”
I’m talking not connected to reality.
Maybe, I started thinking, lying isn’t not the right word for it.
Then I attended Tuesday night’s meeting in Prince William County on the budget. It was a packed hall – as in little standing room let alone seats. But before the little people got to speak, we were treated to some thoughts from the romantics of Richmond.
Del. Scott Lingamfelter started off with an oh-so-pompous presentation of how the House budget actually raised more money than the Governor in some areas and met him squarely in many others. That the House budget is based on widely discredited revenue figures from eliminating sales tax exemptions on businesses was no matter. The House says the exemptions will add $550 million or so (based on figures that are nearly 10 years old). The state tax department said it’s more like $150 million. So in the 2005 session of the Assembly, if the House budget were approved, lawmakers would need to cut programs due to shortage of funds. And by the way, there are future cuts in teacher retirements that would have to be made up by localities.
Del. Michèle McQuigg then tells us that she’s wary of raising the sales tax because of the results of the sales tax referendum 18 months ago. You hear that often, even though there is absolutely no data that suggests the “no” vote on the transportation referendum was principally a vote against taxes. Many folks were like me — voting no because we didn’t like the plan, not the tax. But she had her mind made up.
Then Del. Bob Marshall sets us straight: “There is no relationship between state taxes and property taxes,” he lectured. He repeated it several times, perhaps hoping we’d be hypnotized into believing it. “Property taxes are based on assessments,” he said.
No, sir, assessments are based on what the house is worth; property taxes are based on the assessment and the tax rate. If local jurisdictions get more money from the state while assessments are going up, the local pols can lower the tax rate. And when the state doesn’t provide enough money…. Well, you get the picture. But I don’t think Marshall did.
Marshall then told us that revenues should be considered separately from expenditures. “Earth to Marshall, come in, please.” When I finally got to speak (I was the 40th speaker and no one had yet spoken against higher taxes), I tried to explain the facts of life using the same analogy as conservatives employ. You know, the one about how families make budget decisions. The right wing wackos tell us that families must live within their budgets, as if they have no control over income. To me, the family analogy is useful, but the wackos have it all wrong. If a family wants some more stuff, they may decide to increase income by getting a second job, the spouse working too, or by going back to school for better credentials and, hopefully, a higher paying job. They don’t just cut expenses. They consider income and expenses together. What a novel idea! But one that apparently is not in the Virginia tradition.
After hearing all this and thinking about “disconnected Americans” and their impotence with regard to government action, it was pretty obvious to me: It’s not that politicians lie; it’s that they know a different truth, one might say an altered state of mind, probably similar to what LSD can do. They believe what they say no matter how absurd it sounds to us little people. But then, maybe we’re just deluded by our own “behind-the-times thinking.”
Maybe pigs can fly.