Brummett: A Rational Debate

Columnist John Brummett with our content partner, the Arkansas News Bureau, highlights his weekend panel discussion in Fayetteville on jobs and the economy.

Brummett was part of a four-person panel invited by State Rep. Charlie Collins (R-Fayetteville) to discuss jobs, the stimulus and government’s role in aiding an ailing economy.

A gentleman down front quoted a clergyman as saying we would look unfavorably on a parent whose children ranged from the robust and well-fed to the malnourished, and that we should look with similar disfavor on a government whose citizens are so disparate in condition.

Alas, I knew where that was headed. Collins was sorry for that disparity and said we need to work on it — by cutting rich people’s taxes and eliminating business regulations, I’m pretty sure — but that our government is not our parent. Citizens bear more personal responsibility than do minor children, he said.

There, then, is your debate: Just what is the nurturing responsibility and role of the government, of an economy?

By Brummett’s account, it was a sane and rational discussion, unlike the yell-fest one often sees at the national level. You can read Brummett’s full column at this link.