THE METASTATIC CANCER OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE

Time to Extract the Tumor(s)

The Size of Government

Does anyone think the government is the right size or too small?  As of 2021, there were 23.7 MM full- and part-time employees of the federal government, representing 6.6% of the entire population (including kids).  While the Democrats would prefer to grow it even further, making all of us dependent on them, doesn’t that number seem high?  Given that some branches of government can vote themselves raises and very little of the government can be fired, we could probably get rid of ½ of the those employed on the Executive side without noticing much loss.  In fact, trying to work too hard, or looking for ways to streamline the system causes people to get in trouble with management.  This is pretty much the opposite of the way private business operates. 

I know of someone who got elected to a local board with the stated aim of getting rid of the board, which was no longer needed (a hospital board which no longer governed any hospitals).  It took years for it to be disbanded, in part because those serving loved their benefits and the near total lack of responsibility.  And some citizens were afraid that “bad things would happen” should the board cease to exist.

What Was the Federal Government Supposed to Manage?

Per the Constitution, the Federal government was supposed to have VERY limited responsibilities.  This meant that for the most part, the cost was low.  The idea was that elected officials did their time in service and then went back to their work and the number of permanent staff was small.

To prevent the federal government from becoming too powerful the Founders made sure its powers were limited and well defined in the Constitution.  The goal was to limit those powers to those that were needed by all the states so that the best place would be at the federal level. These were:

-      A national defense

-      Foreign nation associations

-      Regulating commerce across the states

-      Financing the government – income taxes were only introduced in the 20th century, a point we should all think about.

-      Creating a federal court system

-      Controlling immigration (about time they started doing that again)

-      Establishing a capitol.

-      And just those few things that arose affecting all states that could not be handled at a lower level.

What Went Wrong?

Power corrupts and the power to govern the entire nation was simply too delicious to keep those in power from seizing more.  The departments covering the above responsibilities were enough for almost 100 years, and then, the cancer began to grow.  The Interior and Agriculture showed up in the 1800’s, followed by Commerce and Labor in the early part of the 20th century.  But it took longer to grow to include Health & Human Services (1953), Housing and Urban Development (1965), Transportation (1966), Energy (1967), EPA (1970), Education (1979), and more.  Does anyone see the benefit of a lot of these agencies, given how badly they have failed?

To understand this, you have to look at how they were able to grow it, without protest.  There were a number of stakeholders, but some of it was simply governmental overreach.  Some of these will be discussed in more detail in later blogs, when I call out certain agencies for their abject failures, but it helps to understand what happened.  Here are some/most of the  things that made the public accept the growth in power:

-      Social welfare – FDR was largely responsible for a lot of the growth here, making the Federal government into the Nanny State we have now.  While we may enjoy Social Security, Medicare and more, we have encouraged a lot of people to use the welfare system to avoid working at all.  This isn’t good for them, nor does it make sense for hard-working Americans to fund it.

-      War-Making – We once felt that we should primarily fund defensive wars, protecting our citizens.  Then, an idea was conceived that the success of America had to be perpetuated across the globe, chiefly to eliminate Communism.  Instead, leaving these countries alone was a better approach.  To see how benign neglect works better, look at what Ronald Reagan did.  Let people see how badly they fared under Communism and they “tore down this wall.”  We now nation-build and go to war even in countries where both sides hate us, like Nicaragua or Bosnia.  There is no sense in a lot of what we do, especially when we’ve chosen to help a country and then spend money we don’t really have to rebuild it after the war the citizens started.  We also have troops around the world, without expecting the countries we help to pay their fair share.

-      Diplomacy – Yes, we do need a way to interact with other countries, but the many failures of the State Department show us that either it has gotten big enough to fail or that we have all the wrong people working there.

-      Justice and Law Enforcement – How much federal law do we need?  Why is there so much duplication that DAs pick and choose which entity to prosecute under?  We’ve seen the politicization of the FBI, the ineffectiveness of the CIA and the stupidity of the way the DEA and BATF work.  The Bush-created Homeland Security gave us the TSA and secret no-fly list, but probably has little to do with keeping us safe.  However, it is now a monolith.

·         Commerce – Interstate commerce is a valid occupation for the federal government, but since the early 20th century (per Wickard and more), it has exceeded its bounds and taken on authority it doesn’t deserve.

·         Treasury – The IRS has grown ridiculously, persecuting small and family businesses and low wage earners.  It costs way too much and defies our legal system by considering you guilty till proven innocent.  Yes, we have to pay for government, but there are better ways to do it.  We don’t even have to begin to talk about the Beast of Jekyll Island – the Fed.

More agencies exist than we have time to cover here.  But the bottom line is that the best thing that could happen is for strong Congressmen to refuse to pass a budget, forcing agencies to live within their means and NOT grow.  In fact, there should be massive downsizing, as well as eliminating agencies, like Education, which have completely failed in their mission and no longer make sense at the Federal level.

Perhaps one day, we’ll have politicians who can force changes.  Until then, we’ll be stuck paying for a lot more government than we want or need.  And the cancer will keep growing.