by Raymond E. Hall
HOW MUCH GOVERNMENT IS TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT
The world is
certainly a far more complex place in the day in which we live than it was when
the Constitution was written. And
certainly our Constitution was expected to expand and be modified as needed to
fulfill its role as a document to protect, defend and promote the general
welfare of the citizens for whom it was written. But when you consider how much more
government we, as citizens of this country, are immersed in today than we were
dealing with 200 years ago, and that we are drowning in government
bureaucracies, it is apparent to many of us that we have way more government
than we need.
When you see the
tax collection people, the IRS, using their power to grant tax exemptions to
those organizations applying for them, deliberating creating roadblocks in the
tax-exemption process for those organizations whose politics they do not like,
it is the tip of an iceberg of too much government. And then you get to watch the bureaucrat in
charge of the tax exemption approval process say she did nothing wrong but has
nothing to say for fear of incrimination, with the exception of some secret
notes to the ranking member of the investigating committee. That we have tax
collection system so complex that tax exemptions are woven into the tax
collection process is of itself too much government. How many people could go out and get a real
job if we had a flat tax system with no exemptions, deductions, or waivers?
Another indicator of too much government, according to the Washington Post, is that the government is now going through old records to see if it overpaid people on Social Security. If it thinks it did, it can now seize the IRS tax refund checks of the CHILDREN of those people it thinks it overpaid. This isn’t a proposal -- it’s already happening. For the past three years, the government has been confiscating hundreds of thousands of Americans’ tax refunds.. It has already confiscated $1.9 billion in tax refunds this year alone. The amazing thing is that the government is doing this even if it has little or no proof and no exact details. And the letters the government sends to unsuspecting taxpayers are frightening, use accusatory language, and include other financial threats.
The confrontation
between the Nevada cattle ranchers and the Bureau of Land Management is another
example that we are over bureaued with too much government. It is also an indicator of backroom deals for
some groups, such as clean energy companies, who have investors and contacts in
high places. They simply, supposedly,
have the Desert Tortoise removed from the land they wish to use, while the
ranchers are offered no such option in order to use it for cattle raising. The fact that the land has been used by the
ranchers since the 1800's, and the ranchers were previously paying the state of
Nevada, but now are required to pay for the land use directly to the BLM is an
indicator that a government bureau has been created to do what the states were
previously doing.
Another, more government than we need, example follows. In September 2012, a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that 95 percent of the information that the NTIS sold to the public was available for free on other websites and that the agency lost $1.3 million a year. “I find it staggering that the agency is selling government reports both to the public and to other federal agencies that are widely available for free and easy to find with a simple Google search — and the agency is still losing money,” Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill said in a statement. “I think Americans would gain a little more confidence that their tax dollars are being spent wisely if we ended this display of waste and inefficiency.” The agency is currently funded to the tune of $67 million. From the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to the Commerce Department, to Obamacare, we could go on and on. Yes we have way too much government!
Quote of the week:
"Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin
and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere
combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace
alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless
series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary." - HL
Mencken
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