Unless we are willing to restrict the powers of government even in respects where it might be used for good purposes, we shall not succeed in preventing an indefinite growth of government powers. To allow everything which seems expedient for the achievement of a desirable end is to dispense with all moral principles. The submission to rules which must be observed irrespective of whether in the particular instance their infringement is harmful or not, is the main condition for the possibility of order in a free society. And to these rules the state should be no less subject than the individual.
-F.A. Hayek
To a fault, we have been conditioned to believe that Government is Good. Sure – but only to a point and I believe that point has been passed. Every time we run up to the national debt ceiling, I hear cries that we are about to descend into a living hell, that the credit and faith in the Federal Government is at risk, and that we must honor the debts that politicians and bureaucrats have run up…
…or all is lost.
What we hear is that we MUST pour burning financial coals upon our young ones (and those not yet born) is to again satisfy the demands of the past and present spending. Little is ever heard of the alternative:
How about CUTTING spending so as to not reach this point again?
Instead, those of us calling for fiscal sanity are the equivalent of terrorists as they mash their feet to go even faster in whipping money out of the Treasury. And a little while later, the cycle repeats itself.
We saw this writ small this past week when we saw how the sausage-making, in the form of deciding on a Speaker of the House, showed the LARGE flaws in having such a large government whose just 1/3 of our Constitutional Republic being inoperative. Not able to vote in the Speaker meant that the new Representatives weren’t legal and unable to do anything with ripple effects flowing downstream.
And EVERY point of “failure” was declared a disaster.
Never, however, is anyone in Power willing to push the idea that it IS that way because Government has taken on Powers at the Federal level to which they are not entitled. Instead of being small, distinct, and apart from Society, it has entangled itself far too deeply in making Society dependent on it.
This is the result of Progressive thinking that ALWAYS lifts Powers from the People and centralizes it. There is NEVER the thought of devolving that Power back down the chain.
Even as it is now needed and necessary. The People should NEVER be held hostage because of a dysfunctional Government.
(H/T Cafe Hayek)
