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After 17 tries, the U.S. Congress failed to pass a budget in late 1990. Disgruntled unpaid federal employees quit showing up at their offices. By early 1991, the federal government essentially ceased to function.
What will we do?
some cried, our retired
parents draw Social Security, and nobody is mailing the
checks.
But they discovered that neither was anyone
collecting income and Social Security taxes. By drawing
their full wages without such deductions, they were able to
support their non-working relatives, and still have more
left over than before.
There's no insurance on our bank deposits,
others
complained. Leery of insurance schemes, the states instead
required all banks to publish statements of their reserves
and loan quality. Customers quickly learned to read such
statements. Financiers said the banks were much sounder by
1995 than ever before in American history.
We don't have any military now,
was a common
fear. What would we do without a Defense Department?
It turned out that neither Canada nor Mexico was interested
in launching a land invasion of any of the 50 formerly
united states.
As for American presence
in the world, the
governor of Alaska was the first to say If Exxon wants
to protect its oil wells, Exxon is perfectly capable of
financing its own army and navy, instead of expecting
American taxpayers to pay the bills.
Other states
agreed, and kept only small reservist militias to handle
disasters and civil disorders.
Some communities did suffer initially with the loss of military bases, nuclear warhead plants, missile sites and similar pork-barrel establishments. But when those facilities were converted to productive use, those communities prospered more than ever.
The federal government enforced our civil rights,
some minority leaders said. What happens now?
Then
it was pointed out that the federal government had not
given a farthing about any normal (i.e., not wealthy)
citizen's rights since Jan. 20, 1981, the day Ronald Reagan
took office. Wise minority leaders urged their people to
struggle in the real world, instead of in federal court. An
era of mutual respect and tolerance dawned as the citizens
of the 50 states realized they all needed the best from
everyone to thrive in a big world, and nobody got cut any
special deals on account of race or color.
Rural areas wondered who would handle the public land, once Uncle Sam faded. Eventually, county governments became land managers by default. Although some mistakes were made, none of them could afford to subsidize below-cost timber sales or below-market grazing allocations, and the American environment improved dramatically in less than a decade.
One historian noted that the U.S. Congress reacted to these developments by installing themselves in office for life and passing all manner of resolutions concerning artistic obscenity, flag-burning and urine tests.
They might as well have been Austrian pretenders.
Nobody cared what happened in Washington,
the historian
concluded. Americans got quite used to self-reliance and
managing their own affairs. And isn't a coincidence that
their first and last presidents were both named George?
They may have had more in common, but I've only spent 14
years looking.
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