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