Mike Simpson Says Government Ought To Subsidize Free Enterprise
It’s a Republican tenet of faith that free enterprise is always preferable to government action. Even though government of the USA is of the people, by the people, and for the people, Republicans put it down, saying that it’s better to have programs that are by profit, for profit.
As Republican politicians promote this bit of economic ideology, however, they use the power of government to prop up the infrastructure of the free market system. The irony, that free market can’t survive without pervasive government subsidies, seems lost on them.
The latest example of this Republican blind spot comes from Mike Simpson, a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Idaho’s 2nd congressional district. This week, Representative Simpson acknowledged that he had created an earmark of government spending of over a third of a million dollars, slipped into a larger spending bill.
What would all that federal money be used for? Simpson’s earmark declaration explains that the money will go to a government-run university:
“Boise State University will establish research partnerships with business and governmental agencies to aid and assist businesses in an effort to preserve free market enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the local and regional economy.”
Pause, and consider for a moment the significance of what Congressman Simpson wrote about free market enterprise in his home congressional district. Simpson is suggesting that in order for free market enterprise to survive, it needs to be propped up by federal government money that will in turn be spent by a state governmental organization – Boise State University, in this case.
If the free market is so wise, how come it needs government welfare programs like this one? How is the free market free, if it’s being propped up with government money?
