The
growth of government since the passage of the 16th and 17th Amendments
to the Constitution and launch of the New Deal has made efficient and
effective governance impossible. That is because popular but expensive
programs require creation and subsequent growth in number, size and
scope of bureaucracies. Management skills go wanting to administer the
ever expanding number of programs instituted, many of which are
duplicative and possibly unconstitutional. The book Our Dying Republic and others deal with the dilemma. Search them out.
It is widely acknowledged that
big government is bad government but that is what we have. Once
established bureaucracies take on a life of their own and acquire strong
constituencies. Consequently governments rarely divest them. Past
congresses, administrations and judiciaries are all culpable. But, so
are we the people. It is our responsibility to do due diligence before
every election cycle at local, state and federal levels and hold
accountable elected officials. We have been a miserable failure in
doing our job. Officials get elected and reelected, become addicted to
the perks, power and prestige, build alliances with businesses and
special interests groups, and gain access to the government's largess.
Corruption is far too often the consequence. Politicians are rarely
held to account for failures so they suffer few if any consequences.
The media is also culpable. It
has largely abandoned it's fiduciary duty as our watchdogs in keeping
government in line. They, instead, have become the propaganda arm for
progressive government policies, soft peddle Democrat/liberal
malfeasance but lambaste Republican misdeeds.
So, here we are. Big government
is so big, unwieldy and unaccountable that few individuals are ever
held accountable. The current administration and its many disasters are
a major consequence of willfully putting aside fidelity to the
Constitution. But this administration, as bad as it is, is not solely
responsible for our current problems. As noted in the first sentence of
this note the problem really has its genesis in the passage of the 16th
and 17th Amendments and the New Deal. Those actions changed the face
and purpose of government. Since then both Republicans and Democrats
have to various degrees participated in growing the scope and size of
government at local, state and federal levels. It is a bipartisan
affair driven by incessant political alliances with politically powerful
constituencies and businesses.
Only rarely do citizens at
large wield any influence, even though we are the electorate. Elected
officials make promises to us they know they cannot keep without raising
taxes or offending one constituency or another. But, of course, such
promises are necessary to assure their election or reelection. So
costly government programs and dispensing of goodies from the public
trough continue unabated. Unpopular but needed reforms go unmet. A
number of solutions that would help us recover governmental sanity are
included in Our Dying Republic. They, among others, will take
time and will be painful to implement but in time would help salvage a
dying nation from an increasingly oppressive and unaccountable
government.
The below link is an example of troubles we face as a consequence of
having big governments which are inevitably inefficient and ineffective,
and unaccountable. Any more it matters not which party is in charge.
Here is a quote: "In order for Obama to save his own hide, and
protect his top appointees – which is part of saving his hide, because
he believes firing anyone, over anything, would make it difficult for
the media to ignore his scandals to death – he’s basically making the
accountability argument
for Republicans. All you have to do is
quote his endless evasions and childish tantrums. What good does it do
the victims of bureaucracy to hear that Barack Obama’s super-angry
about what happened to them, when all he does is order the offending
agency to investigate itself, and maybe get back to him after the next
election with the results?"
Yet another: "... Barack Obama has done far
more to
undermine faith in government, because his tenure has been a combination
of desperate power grabs, venomous divisive politics, and staggering
incompetence. There’s never been a Big Government failure quite like
ObamaCare, and the VA scandal is a fast-forward look at where it’s
dragging the entire country. Whatever George Bush’s failings might have
been, at least he had an adversarial media to contend with. Obama has
been indulged by the media like a spoiled brat. Only now, five years
in, are they frowning at the patent absurdity of his insulting attempt
to spin away the VA scandal and realizing they’re heard it all before,
time and time again, from Fast and Furious to Benghazi."
Here is the link.
http://www.redstate.com/2014/05/21/accountable-government-impossible-according-liberals/
We must act if this mess is to be cleaned up. Please do your part.
Become informed. That means do not rely on the mainstream media because
they are not doing their job. Search the web and find trustworthy
sources of information that provide fair and comprehensive treatment of
facts necessary to draw responsible conclusions about what government is
doing and whether or not you agree. Once grounded in the facts take
action. Engage family, friends, neighbors. Write letters to the editor
and elected officials voicing support or concern. Get involved using
your best abilities. Vote only after responsible study of candidate
positions and past performance and most of all HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE.
George Burns
