Ellington

Gov. Haley Barbour has grown inordinately fond of hauling out the phrase, "not business as usual," just before he announces new budget cuts. Not satisfied to parcel out cuts even-handedly, Barbour regularly trots out his other "solution" of giving him carte-blanche power to slash and burn Mississippi services.

Barbour's solutions make him a superstar on the national Republican stage, where sound bites about "smaller government," "family values" and "fiscal responsibility" capture hopes, if not reality.

Barbour and Republicans of all stripes would have us believe that they will reduce the size of government by starving it out of existence. Government is the problem and not the solution, according to party rhetoric.

Maybe, though, it's not government in general, but in specific that is at the heart of our problems. Americans, including Mississippians, have been the beneficiaries of a permanent war economy since World War II. The last 60 years have brought enormous wealth to some, while nearly all citizens enjoyed at least some fallout from being a world super-power: scientific and medical advances, cheap oil, manufacturing booms, suburban sprawl and non-stop economic growth.

But big rips have appeared in the emperor's frayed clothes. And as much as we hate to deal with reality, Americans may be slowly waking up from the soma drug of unearned and unsustainable affluence.

American kids graduating from high school unable to read should wake us up. Coming to grips with the fact that our food is nutritionally empty, while still being able to fill miles of grocery store shelves should be part of the wake-up call. Unemployment figures rocketing off the charts while Wall Street continues to hand out million-dollar bonuses might.

America has been living in an economic dream world, and rather than making us magnanimous and compassionate, it's made us fearful, small and more selfish. We have the best medicine, but refuse to allow tens of millions of our citizens to experience it. We have the most up-to-date technology, but have allowed our schools to fail our children. Scientists can tell us every nutrient necessary to build a perfect body, but our store shelves are filled with cheap corn by-products that make us sick and fat.

Maybe, just maybe, it's time to come to grips with the fact that free lunches really don't exist. Maybe we can't have it all without actually paying for it.

Mississippi needs to raise revenues, not just slash services. It's past time to set the right priorities and make the hard decisions, even if it means a little less coin in our pockets.