Why the Federal Government Fails

A recent report by the Cato Institute analyzes the endemic failure of the federal government.  The report finds causes to be deeply structural, and not to be solved with more competent officials or a different party. Americans, deeply unhappy with Washington, agree better governance is needed.  The only way to achieve it is to greatly cut the federal government's size and scope. 

Here are five reasons for its failure: 

First, policies rely on top-down planning and coercion, which creates winners and losers, unlike the mutually beneficial markets. It also means federal policies are based on guesswork because there is no price system to guide decision-making. Further, failed policies are not weeded out because they are funded by taxes, which are compulsory and not contingent on performance. 

Second, the government lacks knowledge about our complex society. Markets gather knowledge from the bottom up and are rooted in individual preferences, the government\'s actions destroy knowledge and squelch diversity. 

Third, legislators act counter to the general public interest. They use debt, an opaque tax system, and other techniques to hide the full costs of programs. Furthermore, they use logrolling to pass harmful policies that do not have broad public support.

Fourth, civil servants act within a bureaucratic system that rewards inertia, not the creation of value.  Many have tried to fix the bureaucracy, but the incentives that generate poor performance are deeply entrenched in the executive branch.

Fifth, the federal government has grown enormous in size and scope. Each increment of spending has produced less value but rising taxpayer costs. Failure has increased as legislators are overloaded with a vast array of programs. Today's federal budget is 100 times larger than the average state budget, and it is far too large to adequately oversee.

Source: Chris Edwards, "Why the Federal Government Fails," Cato Institute, July 27, 2015.

The Eroding Character Of The American People...

how have we, as a country -

turned those who are in power into unquestionable experts...who live above the law...

how have we, as a country -

allowed those who work for us (and were elected by us) as public servants turned us into their servants...and expect our blind allegiance.... 

how have we, as a country -

allowed the creation of a political elite that rules with enmity towards the people who elected them...while prevaricating to us with every word from their mouth....

how have we, as a country -

become so blinded to truth that we settle for agenda driven news clips while thriving upon entertainment and self-focused social media…

how have we, as a country -

traded good for evil and justify our fallen condition as tolerance and progressiveness...

Paul Craig Roberts: The Eroding Character Of The American People

The question is: why do Americans not only sit silently while the lives of innocents are destroyed, but also actually support the destruction of the lives of innocents? Why do Americans believe "official sources" despite the proven fact that “official sources” lie repeatedly and never tell the truth? The only conclusion that one can come to is that the American people have failed. We have failed Justice. We have failed Mercy. We have failed the US Constitution. We have failed Truth. We have failed Democracy and representative government. We have failed ourselves and humanity. We have failed the confidence that our Founding Fathers put in us. If we ever had the character that we are told we had, we have obviously lost it. Little, if anything, remains of the "American character."

The Tree of Liberty

The Tree of Liberty, which is the lifeblood of our freedom and has been nourished by the blood and the sacrifice of patriots, is under siege and struggling to survive. Its roots are being systematically axed by those who seek power and control. The fruit of its branches are daily disappearing under the weight of oppressive government.  Its foundation, our constitution, has been cut and hacked and disregarded so that there are deep scars, like cancerous wounds, that are aggressively and painfully destroying its life. The Tree of Liberty is being destroyed from within…by its own caretakers!

July 2015

quotes for consideration

The ill effects of an intrusive central government reverberate across our economic horizon resulting in less liberty for all...

Bastiat quotes for your consideration: 

When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.

Each of us has a natural right, from God, to defend his person, his liberty, and his property.

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.

Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.

Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state wants to live at the expense of everyone.

Frederic Bastiat

Claude Frederic Bastiat was a French economist, legislator, and writer who championed private property, free markets, and limited government. Perhaps the main underlying theme of Bastiat's writings was that the free market was inherently a source of "economic harmony" among individuals, as long as government was restricted to the function of protecting the lives, liberties, and property of citizens from theft or aggression. To Bastiat, governmental coercion was only legitimate if it served "to guarantee security of person, liberty, and property rights, to cause justice to reign over all."

One of Bastiat's most important contributions to the field of economics was his admonition to the effect that good economic decisions can be made only by taking into account the "full picture." That is, economic truths should be arrived at by observing not only the immediate consequences – that is, benefits or liabilities – of an economic decision, but also by examining the long-term second and third consequences. Additionally, one must examine the decision's effect not only on a single group of people (say candlemakers) or a single industry (say candlemaking), but on all people and all industries in the society as a whole. As Bastiat famously put it, an economist must take into account both "What is Seen and What is Not Seen."

vain and aspiring men...

If ever a time should come when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.     

Samuel Adams, 1776

where we are at...

I believe that this pretty much sums up where we are at today as a nation...

more and more government intervention means less and less freedom and real progress.....

but the 'progressives' (ie: socialists et al) believe just the opposite, yet they do not look at the reality of their 'thinking'.....and the actual real-life results of their so called progressive agenda: less freedom and liberty!

What's the Best Country for Business?

December 30, 2014

Forbes recently released its list of the best countries for business, and the United States has found itself far down the list. Kurt Badenhausen reports that America fell four spots this year, dropping to 18th place. While the country was second on the list in 2009, it has declined every year since.

Why the decline? Badenhausen offers a number of reasons:

• The U.S. government has expanded in size, bringing with it a host of new regulations in the health care and finance industries.
• Since 2009, there have been 130 new major federal regulations for starting businesses, costing $60 billion annually.
• For seven years in a row, the United States has dropped in the "economic freedom" rankings, as compiled by the Heritage Foundation, and its "monetary freedom" ranking is eighty-first out of 146 countries.
• America's corporate tax rates are the highest in the developed world, and the tax system is incredibly complex. The World Bank ranks the U.S. corporate tax system forty-third among 146 nations.

Which nation topped the Forbes list? Denmark. Badenhausen explains that its few regulations make it easy -- and relatively inexpensive -- to start new businesses in the country. Following Denmark and rounding out the top 10 were Hong Kong, New Zealand, Ireland, Sweden, Canada, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland and Finland.

Source: Kurt Badenhausen, "U.S. Slides Again As Denmark Tops Forbes' Best Countries For Business," Forbes.com, December 17, 2014.