Letter: Government can be a force for good

The government you love to hate except when you need it. Time after time when there is a disaster, the first people with their hands out for government help are the same people who rail against that same government for daring to tax and regulate them to provide good schools, roads and bridges, clean air and water, safe food and drugs.

The Republican party created this attitude after the conservative anti-tax, anti-regulation, anti-labor forces gained control of power in 1980. Now every time there is a problem, like the 2016 flood in Iowa, Republican governors, mayors, legislators and the enablers who elected them are first in line for help while complaining about the speed of the government response.

Our Founding Fathers certainly were not anti-government when they wrote our Constitution as you can clearly see by reading the preamble which spells out its purpose. Reading further you will find in Article I Section VIII, Powers Granted to Congress. The first three powers are: 1. The power to tax, 2. To borrow money, 3. To regulate. All of these were designed to fulfill the promise of the preamble.

We are in danger of failing to be the nation we could be as long as the Republican Party remains anti-government and that will never change as long as voters are willing to support their selfish and shortsighted goals.

Larry Hodgden

Tipton