6.09.2009

SUPER SIZED


“Everything’s bigger in America.  We’ve got the biggest cars.  The biggest houses.  The biggest companies.  The biggest food.  And finally, the biggest people.  America has now become the fattest nation in the world.”  (From Morgan, in “Super Size Me”)


The fattest nation in the world.  I wonder:  is bigger always better?


In the wake of prodigious deficit spending, we continue to hear the government convening in order to decipher what new legislation to enact.  They speak of which programs to add and where to increase spending.  Let me be the first to say, much legislation supports what many consider to be a good program.  But question:  when do we employ our discernment skills?  In other words, when do Democrats and Republicans examine which programs are no longer effective or which do we simply have no resources to fund?  Once a program is funded, does that mean it is subsidized for life?


The size of our government has increased exponentially under most all current and recent executive and legislative branches.  Few laws are rescinded.  Hence, our “fat” nation now controls how we park, how we drive, what we drive, what we eat, what we drink, how we behave in public, the level of noise we can make, what drugs are available, what words can be said on television, our guns, our banks, the car manufacturers, interest rates, dairy standards, the animal population, what others can say in regard to our health, what they can say in regard to our character, what must be taught, what must be preserved, what is extinct, how to vote, how to marry, how to own, how to rent, how to buy, how to sell, how to operate a boat, what insurance to obtain, the toll roads, parks, how many can sleep in a hotel room, when and where you can buy alcohol, how much income tax to pay, sales tax, gas tax, real estate tax, personal property tax, estate tax, excise tax, utilities tax, payroll tax, dividends tax, motor oil tax, gift tax, amusements tax, consumption tax, yada yada yada.  That looks on the plus size to me.  Let us say it differently:  our government is big!   And that is due to both Democrat and Republican-led efforts.


Is this what the Constitution intended?  Big government?  Control and influence in as many aspects as elected officials deem necessary?  Where will they stop?  Where is the discernment?  I will refrain from Orwellian adjectives, but it would not be surprising if our super sized government prompts questions in regard to the presence of an actual “Big Brother.”


What happened to the following?


“We know big government does not have all the answers. We know there's not a program for every problem. We have worked to give the American people a smaller, less bureaucratic government in Washington. And we have to give the American people one that lives within its means.  The era of big government is over.”


This came not from a Bush nor a vocal Vice-President.  It comes to us via the 1996 State of the Union address by President William Jefferson Clinton.


President Clinton, will you advise us now?  


AR

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Clinton is not as liberal as Obama.

Anonymous said...

Are you serious?! Clinton said this?! GOVERNMENT IS TOO BIG AND GETTING BIGGER!!!!!