Bored as I am, I sometimes send unsolicited emails to Nolan Finley, an arch-conservative who is the editorial page editor of the Detroit News. His columns are notoriously slanted and predictably knuckle-dragging. Ironically, he also partakes in something that Oakland University playfully calls the civility project. There is nothing civil about the cheap shots Finley regularly lobs at Democrats, liberals, progressives, leftists, socialists, communists, bomb-throwers, and American haters — they are all interchangeable to Finley, who also breathlessly predicted on the eve of the election that Tudor Dixon was going to defeat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. But that’s another story.
Surprisingly, Finley never responds to my emails. I say surprisingly, because if he can say that he is a civil commentator on politics, I can say that I’m a pleasant person to chat with.
This week, Finley had the nerve to write that SOMEBODY has to reel in federal spending so why not Elon Musk? In so doing, he shamelessly adopts without question the bloated, wasteful government myth. There is obviously bloated employment and wasteful spending, but it has virtually no effect on the national deficit. It’s purely a distraction to say so. And if there is wasteful or fraudulent spending, do something about that rather than reckless dismantling of all that works well.
Oops, sorry, I’m off on a rant. And if I’m going to do that, you might as well read my entire email, which follows:
It is beyond ironic for an employee of a Detroit newspaper to preach about fiscal responsibility. Even when the industry was still thriving, Detroit newspapers were notorious for losing money even with the protection of a government (socialist, in your words) protection of an unholy Joint Operating Agreement.
Still, you preach, and surely purposely misinform.
As someone who portends to want civility in public discourse, you leave a lot to be desired, such as when you blame Democrats (socialists, in your mind) for the nation’s deficit. Surely, they bear their portion of the blame, but they are hardly alone in their profligate ways. Republicans take a backseat to no one.
Where do I begin? How about the fact that the last time that the nation did not run a deficit was when Bill Clinton was president? How about the fact that the deficit and debt exploded during Trump’s first term (and that was even before Covid wrecked it more)?
But let’s get to deeper, more serious issues. You say that Social Security will be insolvent by 2034-35. That’s true but I can’t help but think you purposely let your readers believe that it will be broke and unable to pay out. In fact, if nothing is done, it will mean it can’t pay out fully, which could mean cuts of anywhere from 17 to 25 percent of today’s promised benefits. Not a great thing, but not the same as not having a dime to distribute.
And things can be done. Taxes could be raised. Benefit cuts could be phased in. The age for receiving benefits could be raised. The cap on taxed earnings could be raised. Benefits could be cut for higher-earning recipients. None of these are fun, but it is the way that adults deal with financial decisions.
What won’t make a difference is cutting USAID, banning grants to cultural recipients, or no longer sending condoms to Africa.
Which leads to the bigger picture that you gleefully ignore. For sure there are questionable and even unreasonable expenditures in a $6.6 trillion budget. How could there not be? But the bulk of that spending is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense, and interest on the debt, and for that debt interest to be reduced, the cuts have to come from defense, Social Security, etc. Cutting the bloated bureaucracy won’t do it. Do some research (I know, I’m being unreasonable) and you will find that the amount of federal dollars spent on payroll is but a sliver-sized wedge of the entire budget. You could eliminate every paid position and have but a minor impact on federal spending. And I’m guessing even you think we should have a few national park employees, some folks to make sure Social Security checks are processed, a dozen or so air traffic controllers, and enough Congressional staff to curate the Twitter account for Ted Cruz.
Additionally, Trump’s deferral to Musk is an open admission that he knows his cabinet appointments are largely incompetent goofs. Republicans rule Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Executive branch, and yet Trump doesn’t trust his cabinet heads have the skill, moxie, or attention span to root out even the most obvious of money-wasting activities.
Governance is hard. Making wild claims about wasteful spending and a bloated bureaucracy is easy. Almost as easy as writing feckless columns. In that regard, I suspect you are well rested.
