Modern American Government

Twelve miners killed in explosion, 163 dead in terrorist attacks, Ariel Sharon unlikely to fully recover from brain hemorrhage, and Iran continuing to insist on starting a nuclear program within its borders – things aren't going too great in the world. I can only imagine and try to comprehend the pain and agony of being told that - after two days of your loved ones being trapped underground - that they were found alive, and then a few hours later, find out that the report was false and they were all, except one, found dead. Everyone of course, is already pointing fingers. "We need to get to the bottom of this." "Who's fault is this?" "The state should have stepped in." Could it be that this was just a horrific accident and there's no one to truly blame? Do we really need to assemble a panel and launch a probe and have them write some sort of “new regulation.” Just maybe, can we try to mourn this loss and move on without damaging others through appointing blame.

We saw the same thing happen after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Yes, it's true there were many flaws in the emergency response system. However, the blame does not belong to FEMA, it doesn't belong to the Mayor of New Orleans, or the Governor, or President Bush, or Homeland Security. You can trace the root of this problem to the growing bureaucracies and red tape in the modern American government system. This problem is apparent and growing across the country. Why do we have so many illegal immigrants pouring into this country? Because it is so dog gone difficult to go through the bureaucratic immigration process the right and legal way, that the illegal way becomes a very attractive route to these desperate immigrants trying to make a better living in... dare I say, "The Land of Opportunity." Why is it that our current tax code is so complex and so tedious that Americans every day are being cheated out of receiving the full fruits of their labor. Who really wants to go through that box of receipts, pick up those tax forms, and spend over 25 hours sorting and calculating and deducting and blah... blah... blah.

This sounds like a daunting problem. And it is! But I will and must continue to believe that someway, someday Americans will come to their senses and realize that we have to halt the growth of government in this country and cut down on bureaucracies or this government will become so large that it will fail to ever accomplish anything, eventually resulting in its demise. Study the mistakes of the past, or else you are apt to repeat them. Whether its empires, or governments, or militaries... whenever a large organization tries to do too much, the result is collapse and failure. Germany's military in WWII was stretched too thin because of the massive expanse of their military campaigns. Rome's vast empire destroyed itself through again… trying to do too much, a government and/or military can only do so much. The same thing is happening in America, yet in a different way. Instead of expanding our boundaries, the federal government is becoming too large, and its beginning to butt heads with state and local governments... usually with the state/local governments giving way and conceding even more power to the federal government. State and local governments need to have their powers handed BACK to them from the federal government, and stop being overtaken by federal regulations, and judges, and courts, and laws.

State and local governments know what's best for their people because, obviously, they live there, they know the culture, they know the needs of the people in their state, their counties, their cities... the federal bureaucracies in Washington DC do not! That's why we continue to get massive spending bills, cumbersome tax codes, impersonal and illogical regulations, tedious immigration policies and appalling federal court rulings enforced on local governments.

(Will post more later on the things mentioned in the first paragraph)