The buck stops here

I was only 6 and a half years old when Franklin Roosevelt died and Vice President Harry Truman became the President of the United States on April 12, 1945. As president, Truman authorized the use of atomic bombs against Japan, first against Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and secondly on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945. Following the devastation of these hitherto unthinkable weapons, the Japanese Empire surrendered, ending World War II.

I remember nothing about either of these two incidents. I do remember the celebration in downtown Peoria, Illinois, following the end of the second World War. It seemed to me that the entire city was there and everyone was honking their car horns and celebrating. It was many years before I had any real understanding of the event being celebrated that night, or of the tragedy of the Second World War.

Three years later I was 9 years old and in the fifth grade at Polk Elementary School in Cedar Rapids. I had become interested in politics and identified as a Republican. I was greatly disappointed when Tom Dewey lost the 1948 presidential election – as were the editors of the Chicago Tribune.

I remember several things about President Truman. He had a sign on his desk that read “The Buck Stops Here.” This was Truman’s way to say that as president, he was responsible for his administration. We could use a sign like that on the president’s desk today.

Truman led the United States during the period of reconstruction of Europe following World War Two. Truman was responsible for the Berlin Airlift and the Marshall Plan in 1948. The Marshall Plan insured the rapid recovery of Western Europe after the war.

According to the news reels showing in the movie theaters then, Truman liked to play poker. Truman was famous for his daily walks, accompanied by a group of reporters, struggling to keep up and trying to interview him at the same time.

“The Buck Stops Here.” This phrase meant something to Truman. He was ready and able to accept responsibility for his decisions. We could use some of that in our government today.

Our United States Federal Government has become overwhelming. It employs millions of civilians in hundreds of agencies and departments and 1.3 million in the Department of Defense.

Our president no longer seems able to control all the employees and departments of the federal government. Indeed, the task has become nearly impossible. There are 439 federal agencies and subagencies that publish notices and documents in the Federal Register. The Federal Register is where the rules and procedures required by the federal agencies are found and codified. There are 958,364 documents in the Federal Register. This amounts to millions of pages of rules and regulations written and enforced by the various federal agencies and commissions. There are hundreds of federal agencies and commissions charged with handling responsibilities as varied as managing America’s space program, protecting its forests, and controlling many everyday tasks. This is indeed: Leviathan run amuck.

When I was a child there was a regular feature in the funny papers, drawn by a man under the name of Rube Goldburg. This cartoon portrayed complicated, redundant and outlandish ways to accomplish a simple task. Goldburg drew outrageously complicated devices and systems to accomplish these simple tasks. If you have ever played the game “Mouse Trap” you know what I am describing. Many times, today, when something is overly complicated, it is referred to as a “Rube Goldburg.”

With the hundreds of federal agencies, and thousands of rules found in nearly a million documents, it is impossible for anyone to really know everything the federal government is doing. The organization and operation of the federal government makes the Rube Goldburg devices seem very, very simple. We are all caught up in this vast game of “Mouse Trap.”

It is impossible to say any longer: “The Buck Stops Here.” No one knows where the buck is, where it has been or what it is worth.

Mike Lang, Chairman, Union County Republican Central Committee