It’s Time For A Limited Government
October 20, 2009 · carl · Print This Article
For at least a century, the Washington political class has been correctly known for creating more problems than solving existing ones. This tendency to enact destructive, rather than constructive, solutions for problems (most often created by government) has now gone into hyper-drive.
Many who see this situation often blame it on “excessive partisanship,” where the real problem is caused by a bipartisan lust for power that breeds too much accommodation, rather than questioning and resistance to bad ideas. The American Founding Fathers understood that a balance of power and endless struggles within government were necessary to preserve individual liberties. Liberties (and economic prosperity) are most endangered when one party and/or an accommodating opposition controls the administration, both houses of Congress, and much of the judiciary.
It is probably no accident that the United States experienced its most recent high growth period in the late 1990s when there was a moderate Democrat in the White House (Bill Clinton) and a very aggressive Republican controlled Congress (Newt Gingrich and company).
During this period, the federal government actually shrank as a share of gross domestic product – which accounted for much of the prosperity. Yet, in just a decade that was mostly characterized by one-party rule – first by the Republicans and then by the Democrats – there has been a record rise in the size of government, not only in absolute but also in relative terms, so the federal government is about one-third larger than it was a decade ago.
The failure of either political party to get serious about reining in the growth of government has caused despair among small government conservatives, libertarians and others who…Read the rest of this entry
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