Let’s talk about “Small Government”

and "Big Government" for that matter.

When politicians talk about big government and small government, what are they really referring to? Think about this deeply. In the practical cause and effect sense of the matter, what is the negative impact of large government or the advantage of smaller government?

Money must be at the top of the list. New bureaus and larger more complex government agencies cost money to support, right? So that must be a big part of it.

And then there’s the matter of living in the land of the free, we don’t want the government telling us what to do. We’re grown-ups in a free society. We can make our own decisions.

There are probably a few more but I’m guessing that Money and Freedom are the two main points of the Size of the Government Issue.

Okay, so first let’s look at the matter of government spending. The Democrats believe that as the wealthiest most powerful nation on Earth, we have a moral obligation to do something about our national poverty rate and things of that nature. This means social programs.

The Republicans believe that corporate and military might are the answers to all our problems so they say “privatize”. They say “we want smaller government. Replace government agencies with private companies.” Here’s where the republican delusion comes in. First, they put this idea in your head that Democrats want to “Socialize” everything. It’s like McCarthyism all over again. It truly is textbook Right-Wing Rule by Fear tactics. It hasn’t changed since the dark ages. Obviously because it still works (in favor of the rulers). Meanwhile, back in reality, the Democrats actually don’t want to “Socialize” everything. They are simply realistic about the facts of business. The purpose of business is profit. Business answers to profit first – morals later – much later and only if it is very convenient. This is not a judgment about business. It is simply a reality. Now the republicans say privatize everything. Well, the thing is that many very important issues in our society need services that are not necessarily so profitable. The organizations providing such services would need to have a mission based priority rather than a profit priority. So in a perfect republican world, these services would only exist if private businesses could afford to forgo profit. Therefore, they would simply not exist. Of course, rampant disease and a massive increase in crime would be the result of the republican’s perfect world – so we would have to spend billions more dollars on law enforcement, jails, prisons and hospitals. Wait a minute… turning our backs on nearly half of the nation was supposed to reduce the size of the government. Well, that’s the little hiccup in convenient republican plans. The positive effects only last long enough to get votes for republicans. And then reality happens. The fact is that investing in our nation is actually much cheaper than turning our backs on it.

Assuming that nightmare doesn’t happen, let’s look at things that the republicans spend money on now. Like the $8 Billion a month war. Even when that war ends – if republicans had their way they’d get us straight into another war. Ask yourself: How many democrat sponsored domestic social programs cost the American tax payers EIGHT BILLION DOLLARS A MONTH? And it’s not just war. All of the republican tax breaks for corporations and wealthy individuals… Who pays for that? Yeah, the vast majority of American tax payers.
You see, when it comes to government agency spending, the republicans want BIGGER government than the democrats. The main difference is that the republicans think the money needs to go to corporations and wealthy individuals, while democrats want money spent to help the majority of people in this nation. Which would make us a collectively stronger nation as a whole. It’s just a matter of convenient labeling. When republicans spend money they scare you into believing that it’s just “the price of freedom”. When democrats spend less money, republicans cry “Big Government”.

Speaking of hypocrisy, let’s move on to that issue of the government encroaching on our personal liberties. You’ll notice that there are all kinds of activists who publicly demonstrate. Some on the left and some on the right. And if you look at the objectives of these demonstrations, you will notice distinctive consistencies. When left wing activists engage in a public demonstration, their objective is usually to gain personal liberties, rights or fair treatment for themselves or a group of people. You will also notice that when right wing activists demonstrate publicly, they are usually organized with the objective to restrict or revoke the personal liberties, rights or fair treatment of some person or group of people.

So, Big Government… Righty’s afraid that Big Government is trying to tell him what to do. Trying to stomp out the 2nd amendment. Tryin’ to take my guns. Well, that is very far from any possible reality. I challenge anyone to find any proposed form of legislation that is intended to deny law abiding Americans the right to bear arms. Some folks just think that it makes sense to prevent criminals from having more powerful weapons than police. Call me crazy… But that seems to make sense. So no one is trying to take your rights from you. They are just trying to give the nice policeman a slight advantage when he’s trying to save your child from a schoolyard shooting.

Meanwhile Righty wants the government to tap our phone lines and tell us who we’re allowed to love.

Overall, it appears that in realm of practical cause and effect reality, it is the republicans who are far guiltier of bringing about a “Big Government” economic impact on our nation as well as a “Big Government / Big Brother” encroachment on our personal liberties. As usual, when you look beyond the smokescreen of the Republican catch phrase you find that they are actually the hypocritical perpetrators of what they accuse the Democrats of.