The Outstater

January 27, 2024

The Government Shell Game

“If you think the problems the government creates are bad, wait until you see its solutions.” — Libertarian coffee mug

THE INDIANA LEGISLATURE has discovered that the Holcomb administration’s economic strategy, bribing investment, is pointless at best if not self-defeating or even fraudulent. There is a stack of independent economic analyses that says it doesn’t work. A new Rasmussen study finds two-thirds of likely voters nationally continue to favor ending “corporate welfare” and believe government should not be giving handouts to politically selected businesses.

So, will the Legislature, being a representative body, do away with the dozens of eco-devo programs throughout the state establishing tax rebates, credits and special favor? Will it remove the incentives that encourage pay-to-play schemes and political machines in every corner of Indiana? Will it disband the bureaucratic engine for all this, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC)?

No, or as a friend likes to ask, “In what movie did you see that happen?”

Rather, State Affairs reported last week that lawmakers are considering merely increasing oversight of the IEDC “amid growing bipartisan frustration with the quasi-government agency tasked with luring employers to the state.” A Senate committee perfunctorily heard testimony on a bill that would add two members of the Indiana General Assembly to the IEDC’s governing board as non-voting representatives.

Do you see which walnut half-shell hides the pea? Nothing is going to change, legislators just want in on the racket. Problems aren’t solved, they are rearranged so the right people profit. Rent-seeking vendors, developers and contractors now will have to compensate a couple of legislators in addition to the dozens of city and county councilmen.

Being from a small town, it took me some time to catch on to big-city ways. My first lesson was government-operated gambling. It was difficult to understand that if gambling was bad how government would make it good.

It had to be explained to me that the issue had nothing to do with the moral aspect of betting. Rather, the Legislature came to realize that gamblers could be taxed (forced to bet against bad odds) but they wouldn’t complain — at least not like property owners and retail shoppers. It was free money, in other words, money legislators could spend anyway they wanted, without that pesky accounting to voters.

You can expand on this as you wish. Almost none of our nation’s pressing issues is unsolvable, there’s just no desire to solve them.

Mass illegal immigration? Begin organized extraditions. Social Security? Shave benefits in favor of alternative saving plans. The national debt? Formally tie increases to re-election prospects. Election integrity? Paper ballots and single-day voting. Racial equity? Read the Declaration of Independence. Carbon caps? Sit down and think about if for a minute.

I know, I know, I simplify to the point of the ridiculous. But wouldn’t you expect that at some point after a decade or three or four lawmakers would decide to solve a problem instead of massage it?

Like I said, I’m from a small town. — tcl

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