Last weekend, Texas Governor Rick Perry announced his candidacy for President with a pledge to "work every day to make Washington, D.C. as inconsequential in your lives as I can." [pullquote]What Rick Perry doesn't understand is that it's not luck that keeps planes from crashing, viruses from spreading, and family savings from disappearing in a bank failure. It's the consequence of the Federal Aviation Administration, the Center for Disease Control, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission.[/pullquote]

We've heard a lot of rhetoric like that from some in Washington D.C. lately, but I'm struggling to figure out how a person can be the Chief Executive of a government he doesn't understand the value of.

There are times when agencies need to be streamlined or programs made more efficient; but I don’t understand throwing out the baby with the bathwater. As Americans, we experience the relevance of our nation and its government every day.

While Governor Perry was announcing his candidacy, my wife and I were driving down I-5 to take our daughters on a special weekend trip; the federal government was consequential in building the highway we drove on, and I'm glad it was. The federal government was consequential in preserving and maintaining the federal park we visited with our little girls.

One of the stops on our trip was at Portland's famed Voodoo Doughnuts (the sheer joy on the faces of a 2-year-old and 5-year-old eating a maple bar with bacon on it made the trip worthwhile). The federal government was consequential in making sure that the food my kids eat and the water they drink is safe and free of contamination.

When my 101-year-old grandmother broke her hip, the fact that she received good care in a facility where she can be safe and can live with dignity -- where she doesn't have to fear dire poverty or squalor -- is a reminder that the federal government is indeed -- and should be -- consequential.

When I went to the funeral of a young man in my district who died for this country -- fighting overseas to keep us safe -- and when I visited my neighbor, a veteran who went to college on the GI Bill, in a VA Hospital as he battled leukemia, I saw first-hand the consequence of the federal government.

As the son of two school teachers, I couldn't have afforded to go to college without federal financial aid; Stafford Loans, work study opportunities, and Pell Grants that the federal government provides offer very real consequences when it comes to the quality of job, lifestyle and future Americans can aspire to.

When an employer in my town received a Small Business Innovation Research grant to develop a new medical technology, that had consequence for the professionals whose jobs were created as well as for the cancer sufferers who will benefit from their technology.

What Rick Perry doesn't understand is that it's not luck that keeps planes from crashing, viruses from spreading, and family savings from disappearing in a bank failure. It's the consequence of the Federal Aviation Administration, the Center for Disease Control, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission.[pullquote]We're in trouble if the guy who wants to captain the ship of state doesn't believe there should be a ship.[/pullquote]

I’m not saying that we don’t have plenty of work to do to make government more efficient, its programs more impactful, its finances more sustainable. We can always do better, and we should never stop working on that.

What I am saying, though, is that we need the ship of state to be headed in the right direction – toward peace and prosperity.

We're in trouble if the guy who wants to captain the ship of state doesn't believe there should be a ship.

State Sen. Derek Kilmer (D-26th, Gig Harbor) is Vice Chair of the Senate Ways & Means Committee.