Mayors Squeegee Government Waste

When I was in New York a few years ago, before the city’s voters elected a Republican mayor who got rid of the infamous “squeegee men,” my taxi was approached while stopped at a light.

Despite the driver’s frantic attempts to wave him off, the squeegee man persisted in “cleaning” an already clean windshield. As the light turned green, the man stuck his hand in and demanded menacingly to be paid for his “services.”

Like tens of thousands of New Yorkers forced to endure similar experiences over the years, I couldn’t help but be reminded of big government.

Like the squeegee man, big government provides services you don’t want, does them poorly and then, adding insult to injury, forces you to pay for them.

We all know only too well the litany of federal failures of the past 30 years. During that time the federal government has spent trillions trying to buy our way out of poverty.

But big government liberalism did something far worse than just waste money. It spent those trillions of dollars in ways that hurt the very people it was designed to help.

In the private sector, people don’t judge a company based on its intentions but rather on the quality and price of its products.

For too long, however, we have allowed the federal government to operate based solely on its good intentions rather than on its performance.

Unfortunately, three decades of big-government liberalism have left millions of Americans worse off than if government had done nothing at all.

Two generations of big-government liberals have implemented well-meaning social policies that have encouraged dependency on government, subsidized family breakup and condemned poor children to rotten, even dangerous schools.

This philosophy of government has let the physical and social infrastructure of urban America descend into dreadful disrepair. While our streets crumble, youthful predators are allowed to claim our neighborhoods by chasing out those citizens wealthy enough to flee and terrifying those unable to leave.

This year’s election campaign presents Republicans across the country seeking every office, from the presidency on down, with the opportunity to proclaim that smaller government does not simply mean less government.

It means better government and more opportunity for all Americans.

The Republican Congress has taken the first critical step - reforming the destructive welfare system so it actually helps people by requiring them to work.

For the first time in three generations, the policy of our government might finally be that work must pay more than welfare.

This shift holds out hope that we can bring the poor back into our mainstream economy.

When government stops acting as if it has a monopoly on the business of helping people, then charities, neighborhood organizations and our churches and synagogues will once again fill a vital role in building strong neighborhoods and communities by promoting strong values.

In Indianapolis we have done that by implementing the most comprehensive program of government competition in the country. The results have been dramatic.

Since we began this program in 1992, Indianapolis has cut its annual operating expenses by $32 million, reduced our non-public safety work force by 45 percent, held the line on taxes and saved $240 million by subjecting everything - from pothole repair to airports - to the forces of the marketplace.

These savings are being reinvested in public safety and in the largest capital-improvements program in city history.

My experience as mayor of America’s 12th-largest city helps prove the point that reducing the size of government not only saves money, it also improves the services that government provides by making them more efficient.

Rather than simply turning government agencies over to the private sector (“privatization”), the city of Indianapolis has encouraged city employees to compete with private firms to provide more than 70 city services. Sometimes private firms win, sometimes city workers win. But in every case, taxpayers get better service at lower cost thanks to “competing out.”

We are working with churches to help us rebuild our crumbling urban families by discouraging teenage pregnancy and encouraging responsible fatherhood.

And we are helping end welfare dependency by paying welfare providers not by how many people they see, but by how many people they place in the work force.

We are living proof that while the Democrats talk about better government, Republicans deliver it - all across America.

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