Losing the way/ A government grown too big allows opportunists to

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Sep 17, 2001

Remember the government's Creative Wellness Program? Started in 1998, it was supposed to improve the self-esteem of people living in public housing by identifying their personality types and recommending personal colors, incense and gemstones.

The idea was that higher self-esteem would decrease crime rates and drug use.

Wellness counselors would prod and poke program participants to determine personality types, named after 14 Roman gods and goddesses. The counselors then recommended which exercises, colors, incense and gemstones the participants should use to relieve stress and boost self-esteem.

Perhaps you won't be surprised to learn that a report released earlier this month by the Department of Housing and Urban Development inspector general found little, if any, evidence to support such claims.

In its brief life (President Bush pulled the plug on the dubious program not long after taking office), the Creative Wellness Program cost taxpayers a tad more than a million bucks. That's a lot of scratch for not much relief.

The inspector general also alluded to misuse of authority by Gloria Cousar, then deputy assistant secretary for public and assisted housing delivery. The report noted that Cousar likely gave favored consideration to the Virginia-based Community Center for Holistic Healing, a company with which she had a long-standing relationship. The report said Cousar didn't look around enough before she gave the contract to her old friends. Although she is still employed at HUD, Cousar is no longer in a position to sign off on contracts or grants.

According to news reports, the wellness program was funded through HUD's $310 million drug-elimination program. That program itself is on the chopping block as one of the budget items Bush has targeted for removal.

This waste of money, while not particularly large by government standards, illustrates what is wrong with a government that attempts to take care of its citizens rather than giving them the freedom and opportunity to take care of themselves.

Government wasn't instituted to coddle folks along life's highway, it's supposed to make sure there are no highwaymen along that road. Its role is to ensure that everyone has equal opportunity to make a living, not to provide that living. When it broadens that mission, even to help those who might need assistance, government loses its focus.

And growing to meet every perceived need of the people, it becomes the master rather than the servant. When government begins to concentrate on whatever job it has in the works, it often strays beyond its constitutional limits. And therein lies the danger.

The bigger any organization becomes, the harder it is to keep track of what the different parts are doing. Some will invariably wander off, following their own agendas, regardless of their charter. In his Revolutionary War-era pamphlet, "Common Sense," Thomas Paine noted that the more simple a thing is, the less likely it is to become disordered. As the federal government grows, it is easier for some people to promote their own agendas, even when they might waste money on unproven techniques such as the Creative Wellness Plan.

Perhaps it's time government returned to its simpler roots.

Private post office?

We like the sound of that

Not another postal price increase. "The cost of mailing a letter will likely go up again next year, jumping 3 cents to 37 cents," the Associated Press reported. "Citing a looming $1.65 billion deficit, the U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday that it would seek rate increases averaging about 9 percent, including the boost for personal letters."

Just last January the USPS jacked up prices by a penny, to 34 cents.

Is the expected new price hike necessary? It's impossible to say because the USPS operates as a monopoly on first-class postage.

Because there's no competition, there's no price matrix to determine the correct cost of the service and the right price to be charged.

Yet, a recent study found that USPS productivity has increased just 12 percent over the past 30 years.

This is a good time to look again at breaking the monopoly by allowing competition, and even at privatization of the Postal Service itself.

Indeed, in January the USPS signed a $6.3 billion, seven-year contract with Federal Express to haul mail around the country, effectively privatizing a large part of its organization.

Well, why not go all the way - and privatize?