As the US Federal Government shutdown looms, it brings another real time experiment. It's sort of a “what if” scenario and gives anyone interested a chance to see how less government might feel.
First off, a shutdown is not really a shut down. There is a long list of government areas that will not be affected or only partially affected. so take a look here for a synopsis…https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-government-shutdown-what-closes-what-stays-open-2023-09-21/
As you may have noted, there is still a great deal of government function continued in a shutdown. But even so, it is downsized to a degree. In fact, with some exceptions, I truly wonder if most will even notice.
The Republicans have at times had smaller government on their platform but frankly I consider it \BS because government has always grown under both parties albeit the Democrats are better at it and shameless about it too to boot.
Real Federal Outlays, 1800-1992
The above is but one way to see the growth of the Federal Government…do we really need more ways?
Yes we do.
Real Per Capita Federal Outlays, 1800-1990
and another.
Real Federal Health Care Expenditures, 1900-1990
But good as these graphs are, they do not detail the interference of the Fed in the lives of our Citizens. Overstepping State Rights is the specialty of big government. This reaches into Education, a very local affair, healthcare by way of mandates, media manipulation, Domestic spying by who knows how many alphabet agencies, massive tax harassment and regulation manipulation stifling business, environmental controls leading to the no dill energy policy and higher costs at the pump, oppressive foreign involvement with fairy tale press while killing millions around the globe in defense of Democracy …that is just the surface.
To be fair, the government does provide some good services. Basic food safety is OK by me, but all of the winners and losers picking the FDA conducts should go. The Department of Education should go and return the entire subject back to the States. Many foreign military expenditures could go and pull back on being the World's cop. The Transportation Department and Energy Departments could be trimmed and their mandates more well defined and limited. The Department of Labor the same and the Alphabet soup of secretive agencies needs a thorough review to see what the hell they do and reign in off target activities like Domestic spying. Of course, the politicization or weaponization of the Federal Government may be too deep to get rid of it all but term limits on Bureaucracy jobs would be a good start and bring back the ability to fire which probably means eliminating federal worker unions. The harm done by them is no small thing.
For more on graphs as those above see https://fee.org/articles/the-growth-of-government-in-america/
What I see is that the most useful government services are the National Defense and that is far and away an area that might involve some broad influence but is mostly military preparedness and DEFENSIVE not offensive in nature so it could end the forever wars we have been fighting. Of course a well secured border is of the utmost for National Security and would cost far less than paying off immigrants to replace citizens for lower wages. Safety issues in a reasonable way are good for environmental affairs and health too but more in an advisory approach. Some support in a fair way for R&D can make sense to keep on track for a good future. Certainly keep collecting and disposing the garbage, make roads good and keep them clear, improve rail travel through some free market support ot at least do a professional job of it. Euprose, Japan, China all have much better rail roads for travel. In fact many others have better airports too. And have you seen their Subways?
Trillion dollar deficits are not sustainable without massive inflation and that is likely nearer than most think. Hyper Inflation is an ugly thing and the National Debt Interest is topping one trillion and squeezing out availability of discretionary spending anyhow. But current methods of handling this fiscal irresponsibility is to still kick the can down the road and debase the currency. Our spending power is dwindling as I type…Ooops, there goes another debasement. And by the way, the Department of the Treasury needs renaming to the Department of the Debt while the Federal Reserves should be the Federal NO Reserves. Much of this beaurocrat can be replaced by bringing back the Gold standard. The storage fee is almost a zero compared to the bloated staffing. Besides, The Federal Reserve is not even a government agency but a privately held concern supposedly owned by the Big Banks like JP Morgan, Citi and Goldman Sachs etc. That may be but as Ron Paul used to demand on the floor of Congress, let's audit the Fed and find out more.
Yes, I do believe the government shutdown is an opportunity to inspect the value of what is being shut down. After if something is allowed to shut down then it can be reasoned to be unessential and therefor dead weight or close enough. One can hope that the Citizens take notice and get on a cost cutting binge to the government bloat. Reducing the size and cost of government is a worthy activity and improves the present and the future. A balanced Budget Amendment would be good as well. And definitely NO PAY for bureaucrats until it's balanced. Then one could say they've done their job.
I will be watching very closely. I hope you'll join me and speak up to your Congressmen and Senators. Their deafness needs a cure.
Best,
Donn Marier
DM-Your Own CFO