The Limits of Power (Part 3)

Today another President wants to "give" Americans both guns and butter as LBJ did over 40 years ago. President Obama wants to re-form America while fighting two foreign wars. The financial system is collapsing, and yet many Americans still haven't looked behind the curtain, many still believe the magic of something for nothing.

Ironically Moyers, who was a part of LBJ's administration, still doesn't get it: he still believes the magic. Now a journalist, Moyers still believes the federal government can re-form society. In an August 28, 2009 interview on HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher", Moyers said he wants the Obama administration to battle Rs for healthcare "reform":

"I think if Obama fought, instead of finessed so much, he stood up and declared for what is really the right thing to do and what is really needed instead of negotiating the corners away, instead of talking about bending the curve, and talking about actuarial rates, if he were to stand up and say, 'We need this because we're a decent country', I think it would change the atmosphere."

Moyers misleads in a manner common to "Great Society" advocates: they ignore the reality of scarce resources and pretend the government really has magical powers. Economist Thomas Sowell warns against this in his book, Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy:

"Too often a false contrast is made between the impersonal marketplace and the compassionate policies of various government programs. But both systems face the same scarcity of resources and both systems make choices within the constraints of that scarcity. The difference is that one system involves each individual making choices for himself or herself, while the other system involves a smaller number of people making choices for others."[1]

Finding the Right Metaphor: Uncle Sam as the Candy Man

Moyers hasn't learned from his past nor has he applied the lessons of the "limits of power" to the current situation as he encourages Obama to be profligate with other people's money. Ever the press secretary, Moyers believes Obama has to "find the right metaphor" to sell Americans on another government encroachment into healthcare:

"He didn't find the right metaphors ... and he didn't speak in simple powerful moral language."

Moyers was "intrigued" by Bacevich's metaphor of the federal government engaging in a "de facto Ponzi scheme," but not enough to convince himself that more meddling in healthcare by the federal government is doomed to failure:

BILL MOYERS: And you use this metaphor that is intriguing. American policy makers, quote, "have been engaged in a de facto Ponzi scheme, intended to extend indefinitely, the American line of credit." What's going on that resembles a Ponzi scheme?

ANDREW BACEVICH: This continuing tendency to borrow and to assume that the bills are never going to come due. I testified before a House committee six weeks ago now, on the future of U.S grand strategy. I was struck by the questions coming from members that showed an awareness, a sensitivity, and a deep concern, about some of the issues that I tried to raise in the book.

"How are we gonna pay the bills? How are we gonna pay for the commitment of entitlements that is going to increase year by year for the next couple of decades, especially as baby boomers retire?" Nobody has answers to those questions. So, I was pleased that these members of Congress understood the problem. I was absolutely taken aback when they said, "Professor, what can we do about this?" And their candid admission that they didn't have any answers, that they were perplexed, that this problem of learning to live within our means seemed to have no politically plausible solution.

Obama may not have found the right metaphor, but Tim Hawkins has. Watch his three-minute video. Even Moyers might understand this one.

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[1] Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy, Thomas Sowell, Basic Books, New York, N.Y., 2000, pp. 49-50