Barbara A. Stevenson-Jones, and her daughter, Pamela Stevenson, were convicted for their participation in a scheme to steal from a D.C. government program that assists in the employment of the blind. They were ordered to pay over $214,000 as part of their sentence.
To me, the point of this, and similar stories is that even though we know beyond all doubt that there are people so corrupt and greedy that they will steal from anyone, we are now about to welcome a new congress committed to down sizing government. And this at a time when agencies charged with overseeing and protecting the American People are already so understaffed that they cannot cover their most basic functions.
Under a well regulated program this theft of $214,000 would never have occured.
So before you go cheering on this new promise to down size government, look about you and try to imagine what public services will look like once there are fewer regulations and weaker enforcement. When government is reduced the blind always suffer. What we need is not smaller government. What we need is smarter and more honest government. We won't get that by trimming the numbers. All that will do is to concentrate the crooks. We need honest reform.
Carl Jarvis
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