What's A Government To Do?

That is the question Mark Steyn asks in this NRO post. He points out that President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg have talked a good game on global warming issues and frequently warned about the effects of "rising oceans". But, despite the talk (and trillions in spending) there is precious little to show for it.

Steyn points out that a sea wall that would have protected NY harbor would have cost $10 billion, far less than the cost of the damage done by Sandy. Its also less than 2% of the famed Obama stimulus which neither stimulated the economy nor left behind any material physical manifestation of its expenditure.

Steyn notes that our political "leaders" no longer even attempt, let alone complete, produce serious, major accomplishments. After discussing building the protective seawall that could have been with only a fraction of the stimulus money, Steyn sums up our current situation:

"And yet it never happened – and, if we’re honest with ourselves, in today’s sclerotic America, you can’t even imagine it happening, can you? Let us go to Nanny Bloomberg himself:

But with so many prescient warnings, city authorities are struggling to explain why so little was done. Mayor Bloomberg has said it was difficult to translate such warnings into concrete action.

They can chisel that on the epitaph of the republic."

Yet, as Steyn notes, he protected New Yorkers from too much soda:

"What does Nanny B ever translate into “concrete action”? Why, here he is posing with a desktop of carbonated beverages. This is what passes for political leadership in America. Can you imagine this ridiculous man or the spendaholic president he’s endorsed ever actually building a flood barrier?"

Read the whole post. It includes a link to a longer Steyn article about Big Government failures in big crises.