Rick Wade on Government Reform

Washington is broken

"The people of South Carolina understand that Washington is broken," the Democratic Lancaster native said in a statement released Friday night. "If we are going to solve the big problems we face and get things done, our representatives must be accountable to their constituents."

Government doesn't invent but does create business framework

We know very well that lawmakers don't invent. But the government does create the conditions--the framework--in which businesses operate. And that matters. Because just as it is foolish to look to government for all of our answers, it is equally foolish to imagine that government has no productive role to play.

Think for a moment about the federal government building the interstate highway system, which for over half a century has sped the movement of goods across this country and delivered us immeasurable economic benefits. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone today who didn't think that was a good investment. But back in the 1930s, one prominent critic said, "it would be the first major step toward state socialism under which the federal government would take over private industry.