Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Is government too big and too powerful?

Some would say that the goverment doesn't do enough, but those would be people who subscribe to the liberal belief that goverment should take care of everyone.

But I think government has become too big and too powerful. Take the proposed health care bill. Mandating -- forcing -- people to buy a product they may not need or want goes against everything I have believed the Constitution of the United States has stood for.

What about the ability of law enforcement to seize property of suspected drug dealers? Not convicted drug dealers, but suspected. In some cases, even those acquitted don't get their property back.

Now, in a little bill passed by Congress in 2008, law enforcement can seize property of those suspected of copyright infringement. Yes, that's right. If you have a copy of a song, tv show, or movie that is not strictly legal, law enforcement can come sieze your property. What property has not been defined yet. The law created a new czar in the federal goverment to oversee this program.

Let's look at the "stimulus bill." As reported by John Stoessel:

(I)t is difficult to understand how multimillion-dollar "stimulus" programs that research methamphetamine's effects on rats, build turtle crossings under highways, put up roadside signs to advertise stimulus programs and produce few long-term jobs are effective uses of taxpayer dollars. In Washington, $977,346 is being spent on a program that will provide just one job and give a few hundred BlackBerrys to smokers to help them kick the habit...

While policymakers spent $389,357 researching malt liquor and marijuana use in Buffalo, N.Y., and $219,000 finding the relationship between casual sex and alcohol consumption, hardworking Americans lost their salaries.
CAGW's new website, mywastedtaxdollars.org, will compile the many ways Washington wastes stimulus money...a study by George Mason University's Mercatus Center found that four of every five jobs created by the stimulus act were in the public sector, while 49 of every 50 jobs lost since the act passed were in the private sector.

More stimulus acts, now called "jobs" bills, are on the way, which may explain why Joe Biden is busy claiming that the first stimulus was a success.
What's next?

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