A “Solyndra Rule” to Guide Federal Budget Policy

Just yesterday, I proposed a “Golden Rule” for fiscal policy, based on the simple notion that the burden of government spending should grow slower than the private sector.

And regular readers know about my narcissistic attempt to publicize “Mitchell’s Law” as a way of illustrating how politicians create problems and then use those problems to justify more government.

Since I’m fond of these little phrases, I am pleased to see that the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee has proposed a “Solyndra Rule” that would bar any consideration of higher taxes so long as politicians are squandering money on corrupt scams such as green energy programs.

Heck, I’ve made the same argument, so it’s no surprise that I like this idea.

I also want to applaud Senator Sessions for focusing on America’s fiscal problem, which is a government that is too big and spending too much.

In the past, I’ve gotten very frustrated with incompetent Republicans who fixate on deficits and debt. Red ink is not good, of course, but the only good way to treat the symptom of too much borrowing is to address the underlying disease of too much government.

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Is Ron Paul Going Soft on Big Government?

I gave this post a tongue-in-cheek title because Congressman Paul has produced a very good budget plan.

Which is to be expected since he is the candidate closest to my views according to the Reason political quiz (though I do criticize him  when appropriate).

You can read it on Congressman Paul’s campaign site and here’s how the New York Times described the highlights.

Representative Ron Paul on Monday unveiled an aggressive budget plan that would greatly shrink the federal government that he is seeking to run, eliminating the agency that oversees airport security, the departments of energy and education — and three others — while cutting all war financing. Providing a stark vision of what a libertarian takeover of the White House would look like, the plan would slash the federal budget by $1 trillion in a single year and, Mr. Paul said, bring the budget into balance within three. The federal workforce would be cut by 10 percent across the board. Aid to foreign nations would stop flowing altogether.

There’s obviously a lot to applaud about this proposal, and he gets rid of five useless cabinet-level departments (Energy, HUD, Commerce, Interior, and Education).

But why not get rid of the Department of Agriculture, which is a rat’s nest of destructive subsidies?

And why not get rid of the Department of Labor, which promotes unemployment and props up Big Labor?

Is there any reason not to get rid of the Department of Transportation, which does things that should be handled by the private sector, or state and local government?

But let’s not make the perfect the enemy of the very good. If we ever got half of what Congressman Paul is proposing, I might actually be briefly happy.

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