Democratic senators have reacted to the lengthy shutdown from which we just emerged by rallying behind the Stop STUPIDITY, or Shutdowns Transferring Unnecessary Pain and Inflicting Damage in the Coming Years, Act. This bill, acronym and all, would provide steady funding for government functions even when Congress hasn’t passed an annual appropriations bill.
Some Senate Republicans have proposed a similar measure, the End Government Shutdowns Act.
We’ve got an alternative proposal to limit the harm when Congress fails to pass an appropriations act. It’s called Have the Federal Government Do a Lot Less than It’s Currently Doing Act. (We’re still working on the acronym.)
Beer brewers, we were told, were suffering from the shutdown because they couldn’t sell new beers or even old beers with new labels. You see, the Alcohol Labeling and Formulation Division of the Tax and Trade Bureau was shut down along with the rest of the Treasury Department. ALFD includes the Formulation/Malt Beverage and Distilled Spirits Office, which approves TTB Form 5100.31, the “Application for and Certification/Exemption of Label/Bottle Approval (COLA).”
Without a TTB Form 5100.31, brewers couldn’t ship new or newly labeled beer across state lines. This harmed brewers, particularly craft brewers who may have been rolling out seasonal ales or expanding their product lines.
So here’s our idea on how to prevent this problem in the future: Repeal the law requiring federal approval of new beer labels.
Currently, the government has, proverbially, built walls between the states and operates the locked gate. This leaves the walls impenetrable when the government shuts down. So let’s tear down these walls.
An early hassle that soured the public on the shutdown was the slowdown at airports thanks to unpaid Transportation Security Administration workers calling in sick. We don’t blame TSA workers for not wanting to work when not getting paid. We blame Congress for having made baggage-screening a federal program in the first place.
The TSA constantly fails to detect threats and never fails to create massive delays. Airport security used to be a private matter, and in some places, it still is. Return baggage- and passenger-screening to the private sector, and neither the screeners nor the passengers will have to worry about partisan congressional squabbles cutting off pay.
There’s no reason to stop there. There are hundreds of programs the federal government runs that ought to be operated closer to the people: by states, by local governments, or by the private sector.
Much federal aid for the poor could be administered by lower levels of government and by charitable organizations. And the federal agencies that subsidize businesses should be abolished, with their work left to the private sector.
Smaller government would also mean fewer government employees being furloughed and more private-sector employees being productive.
So there’s our reform for government shutdowns: Make government shutdowns less painful by making government matter less.
