By Chalette Lambert

I want a lot of things – a good career, happy family, nice house, health care, limited government, etc. I expect that I will have to work and sacrifice to attain those ideals. However, it seems that on a larger scale, Americans have forgotten this simple principle. We expect government to achieve our interests without any sacrifices – we want health care but don’t want to pay higher taxes, climate change as long as the change doesn’t involve us, and action on unemployment without increasing the deficit.

We expect the government to fix itself and the economy, but we also want it to be smaller and have less power. Well, it’s time to either lower our expectations or continue being disappointed.

If we want change, we cannot expect it to be free. The mortgage crisis and economic recession was caused largely in part by a ‘something for nothing’ mentality – large homes that cost little (at first), large loans with small down payments. With that evidence against us, why do we keep thinking this way?

We need to change or limit our expectations. We need to decide what we want accomplished and what we are willing to sacrifice. This does not include backroom deals or the health care bill earmarks – I’m talking about what individual Americans need to sacrifice: either an overall increase in taxes or an overall decrease in government spending. Our growing deficit shows us that we cannot continue to support the something for nothing trend.

Americans seem to want the government to actively solve our problems, while simultaneously also arguing for government to do less. When asked to identify the most important issues for the President and Congress to deal with this year, over 80 percent of Americans responded “extremely important” or “very important” to the following issues: the economy, unemployment, and the federal budget deficit¹.

Just a few months earlier, however, 57 percent of polled Americans (the highest percentage in a decade) said, “the government is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses.”² Granted, more Republicans agree with this statement, but even numbers among Democrats are rising. As much as this is a party issue, it’s more of a national issue. The growing number of independents indicates discontent with both parties.

It is an easy oversimplification to lay the blame entirely on political parties and argue that partisanship is accomplishing little and that members of Congress are too focused on their own special interests. These are important concerns that need to be addressed, but who is going to address them? Americans elected Obama hoping he would “fundamentally change the way Washington works” – to change the system Americans had lost faith in. The majority of Americans expected Obama to fix things. He didn’t.

Congress hasn’t either, and neither has the Democratic majority. So, Massachusetts elected Scott Brown, a Republican, but he’s not going to fix things either. Scott Brown has the same conflicting ideals we do: he wants to save money and spend it too. (Brown is in favor of tax cuts, opposed to Medicare cuts.) The problem isn’t that individual parties have conflicting ideals – it’s that WE have conflicting ideals. Americans want the benefits without the costs, the budget in the black and our taxes in the red.

Reduced taxes in combination with reduced government spending have already proven effective on a state level. As governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson balanced the budget and lowered the rate of governmental growth by 50% without raising taxes or firing staff³. He did this by rejecting bills that created expenditures and favoring bills that allowed for privatization and increased freedom. Although he was rejected by some members of his party, his actions allowed the government to address pressing needs rather than stretching thinly to make up for a growing deficit.

At a national level, even small expenditures need to be sacrificed in order to meet the pressing needs of the population. If we, as members of any party, are willing to concede some benefits, we can provide for more essential costs while also reducing the size of government and the size of our deficit.

Ultimately, the buck needs to stop with US. First, evaluate your expectations. Identify which issues are most important and sacrifice the others. Second, don’t expect anyone to grant your wishes without knowing what they are. Write or phone your representatives and let them know where you stand. If they don’t know your interests, they’ll keep pleasing special interests. Finally, feel free to complain. Our nation was founded on complaints against the status quo. But it was only founded because citizens took action against that status quo, and they sacrificed plenty to achieve change. Unless we are also willing to speak up and sacrifice, we’ll have to lower our expectations of the change we deserve.

1 CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll. January 2010. Federal budget, taxes, economic policy. <http://www.pollingreport.com/budget.htm>

2 Newport, F. September 2009. Americans more likely to say government doing too much. Gallup, <http://www.gallup.com/poll/123101/Americans-Likely-Say-Government-Doing-Too-Much.aspx>

3 Anonymous. January 2010. Governor Gary Johnson, chairman of OUR America Initiative, travels to New Hampshire to spread message of lower taxes. Business Wire, <http://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?index=350&did=1942770391&SrchMode=3&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1266808265&clientId=15020&aid=2>