Your Government Under The Republicans

Ruth Marcus wrote When a Watchdog Isn't as part of her Washington Post column. Surprise, surprise, but this is what is really meant when Republicans say less government:

"In an era of lousy customer service, when there is never an actual human being at the end of the alleged help line, it may seem refreshing to encounter an institution still guided by the principle that the customer comes first. Unfortunately, that institution is the federal government, and the coddled customers are, all too often, the industries it is supposed to regulate.

You might dismiss this as a fanciful analogy, but it's not. When the Federal Aviation Administration launched a program to give aggrieved airlines a way to plead their case, the agency blithely named it the "Customer Service Initiative."

The program was described at a House Transportation Committee hearing last week at which two FAA whistle-blowers detailed how they were harassed and threatened when they tried to report lapses in Southwest Airlines' maintenance that let planes fly with potentially catastrophic cracks in their fuselages.

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The course of these events traces a depressingly familiar arc: paeans to the free market followed by disaster followed by grudging acceptance of regulation. Just a year ago, Treasury Undersecretary Robert Steel proclaimed that new regulation of financial markets was unnecessary because "sophisticated financial firms have both the direct financial incentives and expertise to provide for effective market discipline." Right. Just ask Bear Stearns.

A few days before the FAA hearing, a report by the Labor Department's inspector general reached disturbingly similar conclusions about the roof collapse at Utah's Crandall Canyon mine that killed nine people last August. It found that the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) was "negligent in carrying out its responsibilities to protect the safety of miners" -- and, again, that this illustrated a "serious and systemic lack of diligence in protecting miners."

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Regulatory failure is hardly as sexy a story as war or a presidential election. As a result, these episodes don't tend to get much notice unless they involve activities, such as flying unsafe planes, that affect millions, or until they end in disaster, such as the mine collapse. Even then, once the tragedy has faded from public view, the media move on.

In addition, the absence of oversight from the Republican-led Congress eliminated one way of prying open a window into governmental decision-making during the first six years of the Bush administration. Now that window has been cracked open a bit -- in part by congressional prodding, in part by unfortunate events. The odor wafting out is distinctly unpleasant.

Shirking a job usually means getting fired. That is what we need to do with the Republican Party in the Fall.

Oh, and if all that is not enough, there is this headline from today's New York Times: New Delays Loom as F.A.A. Expands Airliner Review.

The phrase pay now or pay later just came to mind. With the Republicans it is that the public will pay now or pay later so our friends in Big Business need not.