Government and the Constitution

        I would like to start with a quote from The 5000 Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen:

        “Beginning with the era of the great depression, all three branches of the federal government used the climate of emergency to overstep their Constitutional authority and aggressively undertake to perform tasks not authorized by the Founders.  Extensive studies by Nobel Price-winning economist Milton Friedman have demonstrated that every one of these adventures in non-Constitutional activities proved counter-productive, some of them tragically so.”

        I find this quote by Milton Friedman funny, but true and sad when we think about: 

“If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there’d be a shortage of sand.”

        President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal was praised as the solution to the great depression.  Henry Monrgenthan, Jr. was FDR’s Secretary of the Treasury.  He did not agree. 

Monrgenthan believed in balanced budgets, a stable currency and the reduction of national debt.  He stated:

“We want to see private business expand…We believe that one of the most important ways of achieving these ends at this time is to continue progress toward a balance of the federal budget.”

The New Deal was the name for the stimulus of the time.  Nice name, but this is what Monrgenthan though of it:

“We have tried spending money.  We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work.  And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong….Somebody else can have my job.  I want to see this country prosperous.  I want to see people get a job.  I want to see people get enough to eat.  We have never made good on our promises. …  I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started.  … And an enormous debt to boot.”

What has happened to our government?  Our federal government continues to grow.  Spending increases.  Debt increases to a level it can’t be controlled.  The success of the recent stimulus is questionable at best, unless you are considering the success of paying off campaign donors. Worse yet, it increased the size of government and government debt. 

Our congress seems more concerned with more money and power for themselves than they are for the people.  For many years, our executive branch has exceeded its authority, and effectively creates legislation with executive orders.  Our Supreme Court sometimes creates legislation with their decisions instead of upholding the constitution. 

Our Founding Fathers knew the dangers of a big central government and tried to protect against it.  Henry Monrgenthan, Jr. and Milton Friedman also recognized the danger. 

Why do we continue to ignore history and advance the “Progressive” political practices of the last century?  Will we deal with the problem in time to insure future generations the same freedoms we enjoyed?