The Federal Government
(FedGov) is Out of Control
(FedGov) is Out of Control
© 2016 Rick Adamson
by Rick Adamson 6.11.16
The Federal Government contemplated by our founders no longer exists because FedGov has been allowed to take over all aspects of our lives. The founders did not create a government whose mandate was central planning but one primarily concerned with protecting our freedom.
Back then everybody worked; they got up every day and earned their living.
The founders had fled an oppressive authoritarian government with religious overtones. The last thing they wanted was to set up another one. And so, they designed a system which included checks and balances designed to control the size and might of the new government.
These guys knew that limiting government was the only way, considering human nature, of avoiding overreach.
Such a system is inherently cumbersome and slow when compared to one based in autocracy or communism but, given its limited purpose (defense), that was ok by the founders.
Hense, our democratic republic is awkward making it hard to get things done.
For those who want FedGov to get a lot of things done it is very frustrating because it was designed to be limited and constrained on purpose after factoring in man’s natural inclination toward power and control.
Thus, the term “limited government.” It has been said that the only way to manage and prevent government from growing and encroaching on the people's’ rights is to limit it. This is because of human’s desire for power and control. To think otherwise is to not understand human nature.
So, around 100 years ago the powers that be decided they could better manage people's lives and began to drift power from the states toward Washington. The drift became a flood during the 1960s and has hardly ever slowed. A few examples follow (there are numerous others):
In 1913 the income tax came into existence which provided FedGov with a permanent source of income. Also in 1913 the 17th Amendment was ratified which changed the way Senators were selected. Previously, state governments selected Senators. Subsequently, Senators were selected by popular vote which, in many cases, resulted in Senators being more aligned with their national political party and Washington than with their state’s needs. This happened simply because the Senators needed money for their elections and the national party’s provided it.
As an example, “60 Minutes” recently ran an episode that indicated Congressmen were expected to spend four hours a day telemarketing for party contributions, 2 hours for legislative activities and 2 for dealing with constituents. A similar requirement applies to Senators and to both parties. See the episode here: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-are-members-of-congress-becoming-telemarketers/
Over the years FedGov has secured a seemingly endless source of money and the political parties have gained almost unlimited control over our representatives due to money. These factors when combined with the natural desire for power and control has allowed FedGov to expand into areas never contemplated by the Constitution.
It has morphed into more than a dozen large departments. It spends almost $4 trillion a year. It has hundreds of agencies and runs more than 2,253 subsidy programs. It employs 2.1 million civilian workers, 1.4 million uniformed military personnel, and 560,000 postal workers. It is a huge organization.
These departments and their agencies regulate everything. They impose more than 3,000 new regulations each year, and total accumulated regulations span 168,000 pages. Needless to say, FedGov is making a vast number of decisions affecting all aspects of our lives.
Given the very low approval rating of FedGov, its effectiveness is questionable. So, it is clear FedGov knows how to collect and spend money but most people do not think they do it effectively or for good cause. As an example think of the long reported ineffectiveness of the VA, IRS and more.
For a more recent sample see this report on TSA http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/13/aviation/tsa-long-lines-us-airports/
In addition to its in-house departments and employees FedGov extends it intrusion by ensuring compliance with its laws, regulations and “gifts” through its 2,253 subsidy and benefit programs. See Catastrophic Mistake.
A portion of these programs are called “Grants in Aid” where money is given to states, local governments, businesses and individuals in the name of good causes, but these grants come with many requirements and restrictions which insure compliance with FedGov's policies.
The latest example is the Department of Education”s threat to withdraw funding for schools that do not do follow its guidance with regard to bathrooms.
There are thousands of rules prepared by bureaucrats, across every FedGov department, which result in this type of extortion.
FedGov has clearly forgotten that the money they spend comes from the people.
For another example see America’s Trillion-Dollar Bureaucracy
The problem with all this is that the Citizen’s money is being taken from them by FedGov and disbursed by career bureaucrats and politicians on programs developed by the bureaucrats based on their belief that they know better how to spend the people’s money.
It is pure guesswork. It results is massive waste, fraud and mismanagement. It rarely produces the desired results. But the bureaucrats will never change because they only know how to do what they do.
This is not to say that FedGov employees are bad people. It’s just that Federal workers pursue many of the same sorts of self-interested goals that the rest of us do, such as higher pay and career advancement. But in the government, those self-interested goals interact with bureaucratic incentives to explain many failures. Government workers and managers face incentives that induce them to act counter to the general public interest.
They do not operate within a system that rewards the creation of value.
There is no profit motive, no fear of losses, no benchmarks to measure performance which increases the risk of undo influence by special interests and favors.
The cost of FedGov's expansion can be illustrated by the following chart: 
FedGov spent a little over $1 Trillion in 1970 and will spent about $4 Trillion in 2016. Note that $1 Trillion is 990 times the worth of Donald Trump ($10 Billion).
It has been widely reported that middle class wages have not risen in years. Compare your income to this chart. If your wages have kept pace, great, but most peoples have not. Without stern intervention to stop and reverse this trend the country will go bankrupt.
The solution is to get FedGov out of our daily lives by eliminating many of the departments and agencies, STOP the regulations, reduce taxes and let the Citizens keep and spend their money as they see fit.
Only Congress has the power to approve spending but they will never agree to rein it in. I mean, really, they allowed us to get into this shape to begin with so why should we think they would ever fix the problem.
What is required is a convention of the states, as laid out in the Constitution, where the states meet and lay out the terms pursuant to which they agree to be bound together as a republic. It seems to me that 50 heads (states) are better than one (FedGov).
When that happens, my recommendation, among many others, would be that congressional terms be limited, budgets be required each year and that they balance and that the powers of FedGov be limited to Section 8 of the Constitution absent the “all other” comment.
And That’s that!
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