Big government is back

The 11 September crisis in the US may have huge domestic as well as foreign policy consequences. The combination of a sustained war and deepening economic pressures make strong government essential. This is bad news for conservatives.The 11 September, the talking heads agreed, marked the end of irony. Yet nothing could be more ironic than the sea change in American politics and policies since the terror attacks. Prior to 9/11 (as the day is known in America), George W. Bush was leading the most ideologically conservative administration since the Great Depression. Since then, big government is back.

War and recession require bold, expansive government initiative. Americans understood this immediately. In the wake of the attacks -- which suggested a massive intelligence and police failure - public confidence in government soared. The heroes of the World Trade Center assault were not the market’s “masters of the universe,” but the fire fighters, police and rescue workers - unionized, ethnic, working stiffs previously scorned as overpaid, fat and lazy. Their remarkable courage and sacrifice generated massive support for and pride in workers and unions. Even the president’s 90% approval rating was more a vote for the nation’s head of state than for him personally.

The transformation in the administration’s foreign policy has received extensive commentary. Faced with a real and present danger, the administration turned from unilateralist to coalition. Secretary of State Colin Powell went from rumored resignation to driving -- and limiting -- the policy. An administration that scorned international institutions immediately coughed up past dues for the United Nations. A Treasury Department that torpedoed international negotiations on offshore banking launched a global campaign to enlist banker pinstripes in shutting down funding for bin Laden and his network. On entering office, Bush trade officials dismissed the agenda of the global justice movement. Now intent on distinguishing the war on terrorists from a war on Islam, the administration has announced a major humanitarian relief effort in Afghanistan, and considered a major basic needs aid program for the region. Intent on enlisting the support of Pakistan’s regime, the administration has promised debt relief. The president even enlisted American children to raise money for medical assistance for Afghani children.

The domestic turn

At home, the revival of big government is even more striking. Within days of the strike, the Congress appropriated $40 billion for the military and reconstruction, half of it earmarked by the president for rebuilding New York City, long loathed by conservatives as a cesspool of cultural corruption and liberal voters. The administration promised to pump a couple of billion into the public health service, starved for funds for decades by conservatives opposed to “socialized medicine.”

Most notable is the move to federalize the workers who handle baggage and passenger screening at the airports. Republican House Majority leader Dick Armey railed against “socializing” airport security, and thereby adding 28,000 workers to federal rolls in one swoop. The president dithered, but eventually called for a private system with greater federal regulation. But in the Senate, the move to federalize airport security was spearheaded by Republicans -- maverick John McCain, and remarkably, the ardent Texas conservative Kay Bailey Hutchinson. Gone was the scorn for “pointy-headed bureaucrats,” or “cushy government jobs.” Airport security had to be professional, high quality, well paid and well trained, and the only way to ensure that, argued Hutchinson, was by making them federal employees. Hutchinson’s weekly flights back to Texas, some speculated, had concentrated her mind. Whatever the reason, despite administration opposition, the Senate ended up passing the measure to federalize airport security by a vote of 100 to 0.

Now Washington is gearing up to respond to the recession. Already the favored conservative response - monetary policy - has been judged inadequate, even by those champions of bond market economics, the Federal Reserve Board’s Alan Greenspan and Citibank’s Robert Rubin. President Bush, aware of the cost his father paid for ignoring the pain of the recession after the Gulf War, has tried to echo Franklin Roosevelt. He pledged bold action, announcing that “even one worker laid off is too many.” Initially, the administration signed off on a stimulus plan that would include half spending and half tax cuts, with the former focused on unemployment insurance and health care aid for displaced workers, and the latter targeted at low wage workers. The president called for a $75 billion package, bolder than anything Democratic leaders had put on the table.

Not without a fight

It is still early, of course, and conservatives have begun to mobilize. A conservative clamor has been roused, chastising Powell for his supposed timidity and pushing the administration towards “ending states,” with lists including Iraq, Syria, Libya, Iran, and the Sudan. Robert Zoellick, the trade secretary, has pushed for fast track trade authority in the Congress, disdaining the need to reconsider the thrust of US global policy.

Domestically, the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page urged the president to use the crisis and his new found popularity to force through his entire right-wing agenda - from the big oil energy policy, to corporate tax cuts, to conservative judges. Congressional conservatives have started to try to do just that. In the Senate, Republicans are holding up the foreign assistance bill in an effort to force confirmation of judges. In the House, Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee pushed through - on a party line vote - a stimulus package shamelessly larding permanent tax breaks on corporations and affluent tax payers. The Bush administration quietly announced that the military might need some of the $20 billion the president had promised to New York City relief.

The crisis won’t end the political argument. But the overall trend of post-911 events is clear. In a time of joint military and economic crisis, people look to their president to lead, and the federal government to respond. This popular impulse is more conducive to national unity than partisanship, and more likely to expand government than to privatize it. The pursuit of ideological right-wing policies by Republican leaders is made less feasible. War and recession require a strong government. The American people are in the process of encouraging their president to lead one.