MOST Americans do not hate government. Nor do they trust it to reverse all misfortunes. Instead, suggests Richard Hanna, a centrist Republican in the House of Representatives, they want government to be like their plumber. “They just want the damn toilet to flush. You know: ‘I don’t want to marry you, I don’t want to see you, I just want your bill and then go home’.”
Congressman Hanna’s pragmatism is a good fit for his district, an unflashy swathe of upstate New York, best known for factories that make Remington guns and Chobani yogurts, and which has split its votes 49-49% between the two main parties in recent presidential elections. A successful builder before his election to Congress in 2010, Mr Hanna worries about the national debt and the over-regulation of business. He likes the Republican focus on personal responsibility (Democrats are all about victimhood, he grumbles). But he is not anti-government. Unlike many party colleagues, he supports federal investment in crumbling roads and bridges, expanded early-childhood education for the poor and policies to tackle climate change. In 2015 he was one of just three House Republicans to...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/1mYthe6
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