These Times Call for Bigger Government
US Senator Charles E. Schumer

The recent disputes in Congress over airline security and stimulating the economy, like so many other arguments in Washington, center on a fundamental question: How big should the federal government be?

Since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, those who believe the federal government should shrink have had the upper hand. Sept. 11 changed all that. For the foreseeable future, the federal government will have to grow. The next few years will more closely resemble the mid-1930s, when federal power dramatically increased; but this new deal will involve an overarching federal effort to bring physical, not economic, security to our people. Sept. 11 awakened us to the reality that technology has enabled a small group of diabolical people living halfway around the globe to make large parts of our society vulnerable to attack. For the first time, we are engaged in a war in which more Americans are likely to die on the home front than on the battlefield. As a result, we are at the beginning of a process of recalibration, where preparation for physical security will take a great deal more of our time and resources at both a personal and societal level.

Our society will have to examine the vulnerable pressure points in our country - air travel, nuclear power plants, public health systems, power and computer grids, border crossings - and work to protect each from terrorist attack. The list of vulnerable areas will grow as technology evolves and continues to allow small groups of terrorists to threaten large parts of our society. Only one entity has the breadth, strength and resources to lead this recalibration and pay for its costs - the federal government.

To ask each town and village to guard all the power lines, gas lines and aqueducts is too much. To ask large private-sector companies such as airlines and food processors to be wholly responsible for the security of their products is also too much. It is not just that Washington is the only entity with the ability to raise the resources our new situation requires; the notion of letting a thousand different ideas compete and flourish - which works well to create goods and services - does not work at all in the face of a national- security emergency. Unity of action and purpose is required, and only the federal government can provide it.

The era of a shrinking federal government has come to a close. And the changing times present President George W. Bush with what could be the greatest challenge of his presidency. Many who know Bush well say he instinctively recognizes the need for change. But many in the base of his party do not.

Since Sept. 11, the president has had to face down the hard right as often as he has fought with Democrats. It will be very difficult for the president to break with the hard right, even though our times demand it. After all, it was Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and not Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) who helped elect him president. But the "new" New Deal is upon us. The president can either lead the charge or be run over by it.