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Renewing Limited Government II

Guest post by: Michael Hume

Article Overview: A century of progressivism, culminating these days as the Obama administration seeks to "fundamentally transform" our society from one fueled by free-market entrepreneurship to a European-style socialist state, has skirted (or ignored) the original limits established to constrain the growth of the government state. Here are a few ideas worth considering (and in need of inspirational leadership from the grass roots) to renew our commitment to limited government and restore our free republic....

Renewing Limited Government II

A Few Ideas That Need Inspirational Leadership A few days ago, I wrote about the need to renew the core founding principle of America: commitment to limited government. As government grows, the "people" decline, and so do the underpinnings of the nation to include liberty, the free market, and an opportunity-driven culture of personal responsibility.

A century of progressivism, culminating these days as the Obama administration seeks to "fundamentally transform" our society from one fueled by free-market entrepreneurship to a European-style socialist state, has skirted (or ignored) the original limits established to constrain the growth of the government state. Here are a few ideas worth considering (and in need of inspirational leadership from the grass roots) to renew our commitment to limited government and restore our free republic.

Term Limits. It's an idea whose time has come... every elected office at the federal and state levels should be limited to fewer than ten total years. Some limits should be shorter. The counter-argument is that you lose the "lifetime government service" of some fine public servants; but the few who really are fine are a small sacrifice to make to exorcise the dug-in career politicians who, in most cases, have abused the privileges of their offices. Government is meant to be led by citizens, not the other way around. Term limits provide the right kind of motivations for service in elected office.

Page Limits. One way the progressives grow their government turf is to churn out multi-thousand-page legislative monstrosities that no one can fully understand, let alone interpret. A great way to limit government - and one I've never heard anyone else talk about - is to scuttle that nonsense. The Constitution is fewer than fifty pages long. No legislation should ever be longer. And by limiting the pages, you limit a lot of other poisonous things, like hidden pork and special-interest add-ons. If every fifty pages of legislation had to be debated and voted upon separately, the growth of government would slow considerably.

Spending Limits. This is a no-brainer. We need a Balanced Budget Amendment that requires the government to stop cooking the books, and which caps all government spending at a certain percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) except for defense spending in a time of (declared) war. If we had such a limit on government, we would not be in the mess we're in. The great benefit of a spending limit would be the incentive it gives the government to ensure economic growth - the more they get out of the way and let the private sector grow, the more they're allowed to spend. The current system, by which leaders of both parties have spent the peoples' money like drunken sailors and have been able to "cover" their spending sprees during times of great economic growth (which now seem mostly accidental), is far beyond broken.

Taxation Limits. If we had limited spending, we could easily limit taxation to somewhere around 10 to 15 percent of EVERY American's income. Millions more taxpayers would mean billions (maybe trillions) more in tax revenue, even though the rate of taxation would be severely limited. Investment money would come flooding into America, and pouring off the sidelines within the U.S., as people found new incentives to start a business, build wealth, invent new technologies, and do all the other things which keep our nation smart, strong, and free. Yes, the rich would get richer... and so would the poor, who'd once again have a chance to become the "former" poor.

Debt Limits. We need a new (much lower) debt ceiling that reflects the new limits on government, and to which the government is strictly required to adhere. Eventually, you could imagine the United States getting completely out of debt. Responsible citizens do it all the time... it's not a fantasy to expect their government to follow suit.

Bureaucracy Limits. How many agencies does the federal government have? They all need to be staffed and managed by a seemingly-endless stream of bureaucrats. Limit them! There should be a limit on the number of agencies, and bureaucrats, which is tied to the population. It makes sense that growth of the nation's population requires more bureaucrats, but we have far too many for the country we have now, and it's a huge boat-anchor on our economy.

Regulation Limits. It follows that fewer bureaucrats working in fewer agencies will create and monitor fewer regulations. Regulations are government's way of limiting the citizens, and that's the OPPOSITE of our Founders' intent. Limit the regulations, and you create limitless potential in the nation.

While I'm dreaming, here are some other potential limits that would greatly help:

Litigation Limits. Let's limit the lawyers! At the risk of offending attorneys (especially any who live in my own home!), too many people sue too many entities for too much money. It's goofy. If a company or individual truly wrongs you, you should be able to bring suit against them to make yourself well. But there should be strict limits on punitive damages. Too many people are looking for that magic ice upon which they can slip to line their pockets.

Dues Limits. Unions are awesome, especially in the private sector. The notion of the union was to keep things fair, and they came into prominence in an age when unscrupulous business owners truly did take undue advantage of their helpless help. Those days are long behind us, and now unions (especially public sector unions) have been taken over by leaders who run them as money-laundering operations for the Democrat party... billions in dues are collected, over 90 percent of which end up back in the party's political coffers. Let's keep the unions, but discard the money machine they've become by strictly limiting the dues they can collect to just what they need to function as labor unions (as opposed to political factions). And Calvin Coolidge was right - the public sector is no place for unions. You are either a public servant, or you aren't. Public service should not be a permanent, comfy, unassailable lifestyle. If you want a union job, get one at a plant that makes and sells something society needs.

Tenure Limits. I'm really messing with one of the Left's sacred cows here, but I think we can limit the tenured academic statism factory without limiting academic freedom. Professors should be able to think, research, write, and profess anything they want... but they should not be able to get rich (relative to the average population) by entrenching themselves in cushy, bullet-proof jobs that don't serve their students. You could limit tenure to periods of three to five years, to allow a prof to pursue a true course of intellectual pursuit... but after that limited tenure, the prof should have to prove herself again by re-earning tenure with a strong record that emphasizes outstanding student evaluations. This should include all career academics, from Kindergarten teachers through grad school professors. Along with lawyers and unions, academics have long functioned as a progressive stronghold and a quasi-governmental asset to the exploding centralized state. Time to limit that.

I'm not saying spending, regulations, tenure, etc. should be reduced to zero. We do need some government. But over the last century, the state has rioted like a wild vine-weed, and it needs to be pruned before it kills the nation. The foregoing limits would not only restore our nation's prosperity and strength, but would usher in a new era so great it's beyond our current reckoning. But because progressives will dig in their heels and fight like rabid dogs to oppose ANY limits on government, they are unlikely to happen unless we, the people, take the lead and make the changes happen.

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Article Tags: entrepreneurship, health wealth and happiness, inspirational leadership, personal responsibility



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