The political faith of the Kookocracy is not just that government "is the problem," but that government is outright evil. Without the socialist Jan Brewer restraining them, they dream of a state with a government out of the Coolidge years (without that pesky Herbert Hoover as Commerce Secretary). I'll never forget giving a speech to some Phoenix Young Republicans. A woman in her twenties said all aid to the less fortunate should be terminated. If they protest? "Shoot them in the streets," she said, chillingly serious.
Of course, in the reality based world Arizona is a government creation, and takes more in government services than it pays in taxes. It is a welfare queen. Despite all the cries of "SOCIALISM," it has taken federal stimulus money. Nevertheless, the faith persists. Low taxes, little regulation and a continuing battle to stifle any "activism" (such as funding Science Foundation Arizona or that Don Budinger and his efforts to improve impoverished schools) will produce the best "business climate" in the country. Anybody in need, well, deserves their lot. Best-practices used around the world for economic development are SOCIALISM!!
So how's that working out for you?
Arizona gets an F grade in the new Assets and Opportunities Scorecard from the non-partisan (and backed by big business) CFed. Arizona is one of only five states to get the lowest grade in this report that tracks 92 measures of well-being. Its peers are all in the South. You don't need a report to know the depression that is ravaging Phoenix. One out of four residents is uninsured.
None of this is surprising or new. What's more depressing is that the state's leaders, such as they are, see no opportunity to use the crisis to Arizona's advantage. More than $700 billion in federal stimulus money is out the door or coming. Arizona has taken $2.3 billion for 655 projects. All the money appears to be going to backfill work that should have been done already, had the state not been so insane with tax cutting. Or work that merely perpetuates the status quo (roads).
Talk about a failure of imagination. The state could have used stim money to improve the mothballed rail line between Phoenix and Welton, near Yuma, to accommodate 79-mile-per-hour Amtrak trains. Phoenix is by far the largest city with no intercity passenger rail service -- it ended in the '90s when the state refused to partner with the railroad to keep the line in service. Stim money, likewise, could have improved the capacity of the Union Pacific between Phoenix and Tucson. The benefits: restored Amtrak service; Phoenix-Tucson trains (like those done in SOCIALIST North Carolina), and improve Phoenix's appeal as a logistics center for Southern California. It would be a necessary hedge to a higher-energy future where advanced nations with trains will have a big advantage.
What's discouraging is that nobody in a position of power even thought of pushing such an enterprise. The Kooks run the statehouse. Phoenix is focused on Dubai. Arizona's senators and many representatives do nothing to help their state (indeed, Sen. McCain is introducing amendments to kill transit projects nationwide). The "Department of Transportation" is a creature of sprawl thinking and should revert to the old name, the Highway Department.
Stim money could also have gone to the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, from hospital relocation to building out the medical school. Attract talent and capital. Imagination, anyone? Forward leaning thinking? Hello? Hello?
For the thin of skin, I suppose you can take comfort in the sad fact that Arizona is not alone. America is slipping, falling behind slowly in many areas, frighteningly fast in others. Somehow that doesn't give me comfort. China put its stim to work quickly, in many advanced projects, and China is recovering. And those are the commies.
The sad and miserable fact is that the whole "government is evil" meme is now so rooted in American consciousness that there's nothing we (as in, We The People) can do. Options are limited to subsidizing powerful interests (high finance, oil & gas, private health insurance, Big Pharma, Defense, airlines, real estate, and agribusiness. That's "free enterprise". Trains, urban investment, R&D, education, single-payer health care, and the environment constitute socialism. The key here is understanding how concentrated wealth and power so dominate our consciousness and politics that anything that falls outside this fossilized ideology is sneered at. It's shortsighted and tragic but it's also our national consensus.
Posted by: soleri | September 23, 2009 at 06:35 PM