Some of that could be helped by selecting certain agencies and programs that can be pushed immediately to the States. The flood insurance program is one of those. The actual policies are issued through the various insurance agencies; there is no reason why those could not be policies of the private companies instead of a Federal program. Oh sure, there would be arguments about coverages (and non-coverages!). But in Texas we are going through all of those arguments, but it concerns wind damage. Also, we’ve been through this before with the whole mold-damage issue.

The wind damage and mold damage issues did not go national, and never rose to the level of Federal guarantees. From that, I see no reason for flood insurance to rise to the level of Federal guarantees, either.

If the pols (of both parties) and burros did feel the marketplace consequences of their actions, they’d all play a lot more attention to how to fix things in fashions that benefit the marketplace, rather than just creating new gubermint tax and regulatory mudholes to muck up the flow of commerce.

Sure, there are plenty of ways to fix things, as well as ways to bandaid over things. A group whose base incentives are askew from the marketplace problems they are trying to fix are not likely to ever get things fixed until their core incentives are brought closer in line to the marketplace problems they are attempting to fix. Otherwise, it’s like letting baseball players determine the rules for football. They’ve got no skin in the game of football — the result would be a mess, not unlike the mess created by politicians and burrocrats who have little to no skin in the marketplace game they are attempting to tax and regulate.

Statism also creates a culture of excessive focus on safety, security, peace, etc. I’m all for safety, security, and peace, but not at the expense of liberty, freedom, and justice.

Try explaining to almost any group of Americans today that laws intended to insure the safety of our food supply, medicine, and building construction, also lead to a loss of freedom in ever increasing incremental amounts, and you will be met with a mixture of laughter, anger, and uncomprehending stares.

Statism isn’t like Brylcream because each dab leads to a bigger dab until all that’s left is a greasy mess.

The defict is exploding and we no longer even attempt to nibble even at the edges.

I agree the GOP is not blameless for this mess. I am very skeptical of our GOP elites when it comes to serious deficit reduction. But the Democrats are not going to do it (they will make the problem even worse), so our only hope right now is the GOP being pushed kicking and screaming toward real fiscal reform.. We need to get rid of Barack Obam a and elect more fiscal conservatives to the House and Senate. It is the only way.