There is a misconception concerning the size of government, and it is this: If we reduce the number of public employees working directly for the government, we will reduce the size of our big government. Nothing is further from “the real truth.” For although the visual sight of huge government buildings with thousands of employees sitting behind their desks, helps us to imagine these buildings and their employees as a massive part of an overblown, highly incompetent, wasteful bureaucracy; in reality, this is a small portion of government. It is the tiny tip of the overall governmental iceberg: It’s like the visible portion of the iceberg that hit the Titanic; its enormous and dangerous portions were invisible – hidden below the surface:
Government Contracts for unnecessary military equipment, earmarks for needless projects, subsidies to super-wealthy farmers, federal and state legislations that provides American corporations and extremely- wealthy citizens with tax breaks and strategies for avoiding tax payments, lobbyists (mostly former congressmen and senators), who are now working for oil companies, insurance companies, and other special interest groups that pressure congress into passing laws that are not in the American citizen’s best interest. . .
The cumulative effect of this section of big government has a triple impact on our national budget. First, it continues to coerce our government into spending a sizable amount of its money on wasteful, meaningless programs that only benefits corporate America. Second, it prevents our government from collecting its fair share of revenues (trillions of dollars) from American corporations and wealthy Americans. And finally, even though these areas of government are far more responsible for the national debt than entitlements, they are never talked about: Eradicating them might be the solution to “getting government spending under control;” yet, they’re infrequently discussed.
This brings us to the most dangerous and most hidden of big government, which is the intrusion of the government into our lives: The United States Government continues to gain more freedom to bug our private communications, wire tap our homes, violate our Miranda rights, strip search our bodies, and prevent us from making personal decisions concerning our own bodies and our relationships with others.
Additionally, in recent years, we’ve seen the United States Supreme Court reduce our voting clout, by giving corporations grater power to determine elections. We’ve also seen state governors, with the backing of state and federal laws, making it more difficult for us to seek justice (for example, file a law suit) for grievances committed by big businesses. Federal, state, and local governments have become the allies of “the real big government:” The National Rifle Association, the insurance companies, defense contractors, environmental polluters, the uninspected food suppliers, the unsafe equipment manufacturers, and others whose greedy attitudes prevent them from following health and safety procedures, prevent them from curbing medical and insurance costs, and prevent them from creating jobs and a strong economy. No one is looking-out for the little guys” these days!
In the upcoming months, as the republicans and democrats debate the ways of reducing government spending, all these aspects of big government will be ignored. Instead, the discussion will be essentially about one thing and one thing only – ENTITLEMENTS or the money that is providing care and assistance to our most vulnerable citizens.
Shame on our big government!
By
James A. Porter
