When Talking Points Metastasize

From Reagan's "Frightening Words" to Trump's Dismantling of Government

We were always going end up here. For the last 45 years, there has been a ongoing attack on the federal government by those on the right. Allowed to fester instead of being treated, it metastasized to its current form. So now it’s burst forth as a stage four cancer. The coming months will tell us if any treatment is possible.

It was one of Reagan’s stock phrases — “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” The right loves this quote. It demonstrates that the federal government is worse than useless. Look at the DMV, they’d say (which is a state not federal agency).

So they run against not just Big Government but against the federal government in its entirety. That’s why they like to talk about local control, decision making closest to the people.

In many ways, this distinction between federal control and local control goes back to the founding. Hamilton argues for a strong national government. Jefferson wanted limits on the federal operation in favor of stronger state controls. The Bill of Rights contains this distinction, with the 10th amendment making clear that states have inherent rights. With the passage of the 14th Amendment, the provisions of the Bill of Rights extend to the states without unduly burdening them.

The Reagan mantra is what allows Republicans to be willing to shut down the government over budget brinksmanship. Since they don’t believe the federal government provides essential services to the populace, there’s little electoral risk in shutting it down for awhile. That gives them political advantage over Democrats, who are worried about a breach in constituent services.

Over the last four decades, generations of politicians have come on the scene who don’t see the Reagan mantra as a nice talking point about Big Government. They accept it as the Gospel Truth.

The only role of the federal government for these true believers is a wholly negative one. That’s why IRS employees doing audits on tax evaders become “jack-booted thugs”. It’s how concerns about fairness in hiring or contracting becomes “forcing DEI down the public’s throat.” It’s how CDC guidance on disease mitigation becomes “Gestapo-like vaccine mandates.” It’s how clean energy initiatives become “job-killing wokeness.”

The last five weeks have made clear the extent to which the disease has metastasized. One of Musk’s professed reasons for sending out his “what did you do this week?” emails was to uncover fake employees. If they didn’t respond, maybe they were never there. Trump said something similar in one of his daily press avails, doubting that employees were real.

Given the unquestioned premise that the federal government can do no good, arguing that entire departments are promoting Marxist ideology, that USAID is rife with fraud, that Medicaid is full of able-bodied people sitting on the couch eating Cheetos, that technology can do air traffic control, is just a logic extension of the premise.

With the disease in full flower, the prognosis is predictable if horrible. The only thing that will celebrated at the federal level is success of the economy (as measured by the stock market and job creation due to tax cuts for entrepreneurs and corporations) and a strong military (measured by the absence of diversity initiatives and trans people).

Everything else will devolve to the States (because somehow they are wise in their exercise of power). So Medicaid will be block granted, leaving the states to pick up more than they have. Things like special education will become matters for state boards of education since there won’t be a Department of Education. Food safety and chronic disease will have to be picked up locally.

All of this will place a remarkable burden on state budgets, which are barred from running deficits. This will require further cuts in services (with no backstop) or increases in state income taxes. But Trump and his Republican colleagues will be able to say that they achieved their goal of shrinking the Federal Government.

But people will be worse off. The Right may have this stage four cancer, but it is everyday folks who will be in pain.