Columnist and author E.J. Dionne points out in the Washington Post that budget-balancing success in the state of Maryland shows politicians acting like adults — cutting spending and raising taxes.  But he notes also that Maryland governor Martin O’Malley and the Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature have shied away from pushing a larger message about government’s role in making society work.

Dionne, author of the book Why Americans Hate Politics, argues in a follow-up article that "most Americans preferred to see politics" as part of "the search for remedy."  Politicians, on the other hand, prefer using "issues" to score points with voters, avoid discussion of remedies and pushing the solution of real problems off until "after the election."  This pattern can be repeated . . . until after the next election, leaving real problems that citizens see every day ignored by elected officials, and passed over by civil servants who get paid to solve real problems.

By using gambling revenues to overcome deficits, elected officials in states like Maryland (which has only put the issue up for referendum, and may not, in the end, realize this revenue source) avoid a vitally important debate about why we have government at all.  Dionne notes that these politicians "lack faith in their capacity to make the case for what government does" and "resort to gimmicks rather than face the full cost of services that voters contend they want."

The alternative to state-sponsored gambling (which forms an odd couple with school funding in any case) is to raise taxes on the wealthiest citizens.  Dionne points out that Maryland’s recent increase on citizens earning more than $500,000 per year — at three-quarters of a percent — is modest at best.  It might be said that raising taxes too high on the voters best equipped to unseat them is asking too much of politicians.  But politicians like O’Malley, who have devoted themselves to public service, should make a bolder case for the services government does provide to the public.  Stronger support for competent government spending doesn’t have to polarize society.  It can lead to a more informed debate about what is lost when government goes begging.

Ned Hodgman

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