With a faltering economy, multiple wars, and
the approaching demise of the dollar’s reserve status,
there are more than enough problems to keep politicians in Washington
working day and night. In between handing out cash for clunkers
and nationalizing healthcare, the administration is busy sending
more troops overseas, escalating existing wars, and seeking
out excuses to start new wars. Congress is working on "urgent"
legislation to address crises like healthcare reform and climate
change. The reforms are so very urgent that legislation must
pass swiftly with no time to read the bills even though the
new laws wouldn’t take effect for several years! Meanwhile,
the Federal Reserve is busy dealing with our dollar crisis by
printing up more dollars.
Yes, there certainly is a lot for Washington to do these days.
Most, if not all, of what Washington is doing however, is more
of what created the problems in the first place. Capitol Hill
is filled with politicians running around putting out fires
— but with gasoline. The truth is that all these fires
keep so many powerful people employed and wealthy that it is
not truly in many decision makers’ interests to be very
effective problem-solvers. If Washington ran out of problems,
think how many lobbyists would be out of a job, and how many
special interest groups would just disband? Sadly, whatever
is bad for the greater economy is good for the economy and job
market in DC.
Of course, no form of government, not even one that respected
its Constitutional restraints, would magically create a problem-free
society. The question is: how should a society deal with its
problems? The form of government that our founders envisioned,
in which the federal government was strictly constrained by
the Constitution, allows private citizens and communities to
solve their own problems. The role of the government should
be to protect contracts, punish fraud and violence through appropriate
laws, law enforcement and the courts. Not a whole lot of laws
or bureaucrats are really necessary to work on just that. Instead,
new laws are constantly needed to fix the problems that previous
unconstitutional laws created. We have ended up with an incomprehensible
maze of laws and regulations that severely constrains the people
and expands the government — the exact opposite of what
our founders intended.
This is all because the Constitution is treated like a suggestion
manual instead of the supreme law of the land. Under the Constitution,
politicians’ hands are supposed to be tied in most of
the areas they involve themselves in today. But somewhere along
the line, politicians stepped out of Constitutional bounds and
started pretending to solve our problems for us. All we have
to show for it is more problems.
Today, Washington politicians can busily "solve"
one problem, knowing that unintended consequences from that
"solution" will keep them and their friends all very
busy tomorrow. The people are ultimately left suffocating under
the burden of Washington’s helping hands. It is coming
to a point where our economy, our dollar, and indeed, the rest
of the world have had about all the help from Washington that
they can stand. The United States is headed the way of Rome
and the Soviet Union, for the same reasons, unless we reverse
the trend.
I continue to hope that enough Americans will realize that
the true strength of our country doesn’t come from Washington,
but rather the limitations placed on government in the Constitution.
We must resolve to reverse the destructive course that we are
on and then never again let big government problem-solving take
over our lives and our country.
