Starve the Beast |
Panderbear also thinks the leader of the constitutional convention and first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, had it about right in Federalist Paper No. 15, "A government ought to contain in itself every power requisite to the full accomplishment of the objects committed to its care, and to the complete execution of the trusts for which it is responsible, free from every other control but a regard to the public good and to the sense of the people." This statement suggests the starve the beast strategy puts the cart before the horse. It is necessary to decide the scope of services we want from our government, before deciding what powers, including taxation, it should have and to what extent it should exercise them.
No one wants a government bigger than necessary. Bumper-sticker conservative political slogans about small government are pure pandering. Having decided what tasks we require of our government we must then fund it exactly enough to accomplish those tasks. No more and no less.
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