Wil Cardon, Republican U.S. Senate Candidate, Surprisingly Wants To Run Government Like a Business ... No, Seriously He Does!

Why do the vast majority of Republicans believe that government should be “run like a business” or manage its finances the same way the “average American family” does? Which brings up the broader question: Why are the vast majority of Republicans so hell bent on destroying our government and yet fight so hard to be part our government? It seems that a day doesn’t go by without some Republican lecturing the rest of us on the evils of government and the saintliness of American corporations.

Wil Cardon, Republican candidate to replace the quitting "retiring" Senator Jon Kyl, is just the latest example of a Republican who thinks that government should be run like a business. The only problem is, that Mr. Cardon doesn’t truly want government to be run like a business otherwise he wouldn’t have written his Op-Ed in the Arizona Republic. Mr. Cardon states that government, in order to run like a business must do the following:

1. Enact A Balanced Budget Amendment
2. Cut Taxes
3. Cut Spending

First off, I know of no corporation that desires not to make a profit. A Balanced Budget Amendment would also forbid the government from running surpluses, requiring government to cut taxes to meet lower expenses. Name one American corporation that doesn’t love profit. Name one American corporation that would cut revenues because they outpaced expenses?

Second, I know of no corporation that cuts revenues at every possible turn, hoping to starve itself into oblivion. Hell, I know of no “average American family” that intentionally cuts its income in order to make their selves irrelevant. This is the major problem with the Republican’s concept of running government like a business. If you want government to run itself like a business, you need to allow it to raise taxes to meet expenses and to pay down debt.

It is not quite true that Republicans hate all taxes. They just prefer “user fees”, “sales taxes” and “value added taxes” instead of income taxes based on progressive rates. They like to sell these as a “fair tax” as even the poorest have to pay it. Never mind that government reliant on such taxes see their revenues fluctuate wildly with the overall economy. The State of Arizona is a huge example of what happens when a government relies heavily on use taxes and fees when the economy falters.

Third, corporations can cut expenses so far. I know of no American corporation that has been able to survive on cutting expenses only. At some point the corporation’s quality of service and/or product suffers and their revenues drop even more as customers seek better services and/or products. Thus, governments can’t cut their way to non-deficit spending.

If you want government to run like a corporation, it must be allowed to raise revenues to meet the expenses of the nation. It must be allowed to invest its revenues in education, infrastructure, new technologies and the general welfare of the American people, including government provided single player universal healthcare.

As I said though, the majority of Republicans, such as Mr. Cardon, don’t want government to run like a businesses or the average American family. They want government to be hampered by a false “balanced budget” requirement, the inability to raise revenues while allowing only cuts in existing revenues and the inability to invest those revenues for the future generations.

This is a recipe for disaster, a disaster that only an elite few will survive and benefit from. Too bad Mr. Cardon doesn’t realize that he most likely won’t be one of those elite few.