It never ceases to amaze me how so many people have faith in politicians. History has shown repeatedly that politicians make a mess of things and that the bigger a government gets the worse it becomes. There is, for instance, little doubt that the United States would be a better, happier place were the Federal government to fade away, or at least become a mere shadow of its present self. This is not to say that no government is necessary. As a Catholic, and therefore a subsidiarist, I don’t believe in no government but in small government. We need to devolve power away from the megalomaniacal monolith in Washington DC and restore power to state and local government. Power to the people means bringing power closer to the people.
An article in today’s Crisis Magazine makes the Church’s case for sane government in a mad world:
As long as a government borrows its country’s money into existence as an interest-bearing debt, that government is not answerable to its people but only to those from whom it borrows.
Government is too big, yes – but government is also not exercising the sovereign power that is proper to it. That’s the paradox of why government is too big.
The power and constitutional right of government to issue its own money, debt free, to the good produced, for the common good, and transparently controlling its quantity, is a power that makes a government vulnerable (and answerable) to its people.
But the government only answers to its financiers – the banks from whom it borrows at compounding interest.
As long as a government is allowed to borrow, it will be as big and ruthless as those that finance it.
You want smaller government, then let’s start talking about outlawing government from borrowing and outlawing fractional reserve lending (which is really only counterfeiting); and let’s talk about having the government issue its own currency, debt free, to the good produced, for the common good.