Optimism is the default mode of American politics. But the economic collapse has cast a deep shadow over American life in a way that extends beyond politics. How to look ahead with hope, with ingenuity and a can-do spirit, has become the big challenge for anyone seeking office today.
This was evident in the article in Sunday’s Herald about the state budget and the six candidates for governor. It is not an era of expansive proposals and wide horizons. For all the candidates – five Democrats and one Republican – the challenge has been how to live within the narrow horizons dictated by the dire economic straits Vermonters are facing.
All across the nation, it is an era of increased impoverishment. It stands to reason that, when one in six workers is unemployed or underemployed, then the public sector, too, will feel the pinch. Thus, we hear stories of communities doing without police, of schools laying off teachers by the droves. In Vermont, according to another story on Sunday, libraries have been forced to pare back even as their services are in greater demand.
Our spreading impoverishment extends to the state budget, too. Thus, all six candidates for governor described the need to bring heightened scrutiny to efficiency in government, to put state programs to the test, to expand the critical look that began earlier this year with the Challenges for Change process. The new governor will face a state budget deficit in the coming year of $100 million to $120 million, which is not as dire as the $150 million shortfall the Legislature faced this year, but which becomes all the more difficult to achieve on top of cuts already made.
So what of that spirit of optimism, the can-do spirit, the willingness to experiment and look ahead that are what we look for in a leader? Where does that spirit find scope within the gloomy circumstances of the day?
It’s no surprise that the candidates are full of ideas, carefully circumscribed by the fiscal limitations imposed by the economy. You don’t run for office if you don’t think that you can change things for the better.
It’s likely that, whoever wins, state government will come under a more intense microscope. Over time, many good ideas give rise to government programs with a particular mission. Programs in every nook and cranny of state government will be forced to show that they are meeting a need or providing an essential service. The austerity imposed when state employees took a 3 percent pay cut and political appointees took a 5 percent cut will have to work its way down the organizational chart to the contractors and nonprofits that carry out the state’s work.
The candidates have all touted the need for economic development programs to launch a new era of enterprise in Vermont. It will have to be shown that money spent, or foregone, in the name of economic development is actually producing results. Sustained and aggressive focus on expanding high-speed Internet access must be part of Vermont’s future. Gov. James Douglas launched the state’s e-State initiative, but he has missed his goal of extending access everyone in the state.
For the Democrats health care remains an important piece of unfinished business, and most of them highlight the need for some sort of statewide single-payer system. Indeed, rising health care costs remain a damper on the economy all across the nation. The trick is to make the expenditures now to save money later.
As Paul Krugman writes in the column below, the trick is also refusing to accept impoverishment and unemployment as the new normal. Responding passively to the economic circumstances merely consigns the great majority of Americans to a new period of scarce resources while the very wealthy continue to enjoy their prerogatives. Responding creatively by forcing government to live within its means and at the same time to find ways – in telecommunications and economic development, in health care and education – to invest in Vermont’s future will allow that spirit of optimism to shape the future in way that benefits us all.
rutlandherald.com
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