In the US, Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, could be removed from office as early as this week. His crime? He worked with Democrats to pass the budget and saved the U.S. government from shutting down.
And here too, the new budget is only valid for 45 days. Worse still, it contains no aid measures for Ukraine.
This is not the first time that the American government has been paralyzed in this way. In 2018, Democrats refused to vote on a budget that would have included funding to build the wall on the southern border that Donald Trump wanted to build to curb the entry of illegal immigrants into the United States.
This time around twenty Republican Party elected officials refused to vote for the budget unless it included drastic cuts in government spending.
After failing to completely block the budget, these extremist elected officials now want to overthrow the chamber’s president.
Who is an extremist?
From their point of view, the extremists are more likely to be the Democrats, who are constantly trying to increase government spending and thus reach even deeper into the pockets of American taxpayers.
In reality, very rich people and corporations pay less and less in taxes, forcing the middle class to pay more and more.
Cutting services to citizens is an extremist measure.
But conversely, the idea that state funds are inexhaustible is also extremist thinking.
For example, many nonprofit organizations that deal with illegal immigrants in the United States seem to believe this.
painful decisions
The sad reality is that government resources are not inexhaustible. Decisions are inevitable and sometimes painful. Is it better to partially finance the war in Ukraine than to provide for the basic needs of illegal immigrants? Is both possible? But what other expenses should then be eliminated? Or which taxes should be increased?
Unfortunately, political extremists cannot do anything with such considerations.
Those who want to reduce government spending imagine that they would make more money in a society that is closer to the law of the jungle. They don’t want to understand that private care often costs more than public care, as the pathetic American health care system shows.
Conversely, extremists who want to endlessly increase government spending in the name of grand philosophical values do not understand that such increases can generate high inflation and ultimately impoverish everyone.
For decades, the Société des alcools du Québec has had the slogan: Moderation tastes better. It’s the same in politics. But it is clear that our times are not suitable for moderation.
