Government

There are over 539,000 government agencies in the United States!  At all levels, of course.  City, County, State, and federal governments, and all operating at peak inefficiency.  Is this slander?  Am I slamming honest, hard working bureaucrats?  I don’t mean to, because in all governments, there are hard working employees trying to carry out the dictates of the rules and regulations their jobs call for, be they smart or stupid.

My son David, has bumper strips that say, “Government Is Not The Answer,” and believe me, it isn’t.  Way back in 1893, Benjamin Tucker wrote:  “Government is the assumption of authority over a given area and all within it, exercised generally for the double purpose of more complete oppression of its subjects and extension of its boundaries.”  In 1925, Senator Reed Smoot said in a speech, “The cost of government will continue to increase, I care not what party is in power.”  We can hope that the new class in the House will prove that not to be true.

The age old question, is whether we work for the government, or the government works for us.  Of the 539,000 plus government agencies, surely we could do with maybe 450,000?  Maybe 400,000?  Remember that in Jefferson’s time, the State Department had but seven employees.  Under Republicans and Democrats, and even under Ronnie Reagan, government has grown and grown, and grown.  With Obamacare, government has decided to confiscate another percentage of our lives, and naturally, do it with huge inefficiency…unless it can be stopped dead in its tracks, either by non-funding, or repeal.

As has been said in my columns over and over again, no government does anything cheaply or efficiently.  Example:  In Grand Junction, Colorado, the city government updated a downtown area at huge cost.  Some lame brain bureaucrat decided that back-in parking spaces would be nice.  Ever hear of a back-in street parking space?  As the work progressed, everyone thought it was goofy.  Naturally, no one used them, as backing into a parking space in the middle of a street is virtually impossible with traffic coming at you.  They have decided to make them pull-in parking spaces, and the change will cost $60,000.  Guess who will pay?  Has any bureaucrat the intelligence or ability to run a business?  It’s a business person who knows how to do things efficiently and control cost.  Perhaps before a person could be hired by government, they should have proven themselves in private enterprise?

The Department of Education spends $160 billion a year, educates no one, and harasses the life out of school districts, while telling everyone that they are facilitating education.  It was established in 1980 by Jimmy Carter.  Was there no education before 1980?  Actually, it was far better.  The Department of Energy, was started in 1977 by Carter, and its budget is close to $75 billion a year.  Was there no energy generated before 1977?  Just the elimination of these two cabinet positions would save over $235 billion a year.  Of what value are all the czars Obama has appointed, each with huge offices and staff?  Another hundred billion a year saved?  These are just a few things which government does, proving that what Tom Jefferson said is true. “Those who are governed best are governed least.”

Dishonest Abe Lincoln, before he was elected President, which caused secession, said this in 1860.  “The maintenance inviolate of the rights of the states, and especially the right off each state to order and control its own domestic institutions, according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to the balance of powers on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend.”  He changed his mind upon being elected, and started a war which killed 620,000.

Governments start wars, declare wars, and foment wars, as FDR did in 1941.  It was government that ordered the invasion of Vietnam, Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan.  It was government that decided to get involved in Korea.  It is government that taxes us and rules our lives, without our permission.  Part of the federal legislature has changed hands, hopefully to the good.  Wouldn’t it be nice if the debt limit were not raised, and the debt began to decline?  Afghanistan costs $$30 million an hour, or is it $30 billion an hour?  Think of the savings if all troops were called home immediately. No one has yet to explain why we’re there in the first place, nor why we went into Iraq.  Come on Tea Party, let’s get on the ball!