We all want Small Government

from Hobbes book Leviathan

Republicans are the so called "small government" party. That's untrue. The reality, in my opinion, is that we all want small, or big, government, depending on what parts of the government we are talking about. When it comes to the war part of the government ("defense"), Republicans are big government all the way (and, to a lesser extent,  Democrats too). When it comes to helping poor people, generally Democrats are big government, Republicans small government, and Tea Party no government (which I think is race based, but that's another issue). In other worlds, "small government" is not an accurate way to describe a political party.

I think that we all understand the general problem with government over time; namely, it gets bigger, it grows like a leviathan. It's a rolling stone that does grow moss. If you looked at the current United States Code Annotated, the set of all federal laws on the books now, it spans over 50 feet (much of that includes notes about court cases but still). The Code of Federal Regulations (written by the various executive agencies like EPA), is another 50 feet.When library patrons walk into the law library I work at, they are usually astounded at the sheer volume. If you looked at the same set 50 years ago, I'm willing to bet it would be significantly smaller (I've noticed this trend with Michigan law...I've seen that as the decades grow, the volumes grow). Now, I'm not saying this is the worst thing ever, I'm just saying that, at some point, it does become a problem. Politically, it's very hard to slash government; it's not a sexy thing to do. Thus we have a big government. Democrats are concerned too. What to do about it?

I will add just a few ideas. First, budgets reflect priorities. Let's stop funding wars, which cost billions. Let's slash the Defense down to a reasonable level. Let's make large corporations actually pay their taxes, and let's go back to a more progressive income tax code  for the super rich. With all those savings and all that revenue, let's invest in education (I believe a lack in education is what causes larger problems like poverty, in part).

What parts of the government do you want smaller? 

What parts do you want bigger?