In his State of the Union address in 1996, Bill Clinton extolled the end of the era of big government. Four years later, George W. Bush strode into the White House vying for a return to a smaller, less profligate federal government.
Now, in a clear denouncement of the reduction in the size, scope and involvement of the federal government in our everyday lives, the public has elected Barack Obama, ratifying the collective desire for expanded federal responsibilities and what "American Prospect" contributor William Galston has called the return of big government.
The return of big government? Was it ever really gone?
In these past eight years, Bush has presided over the biggest federal budget expansion since President Franklin D. Roosevelt brought us the New Deal and WWII. From 2001, when the statutory budget was $1.9 trillion - to 2009's projected budget of $3.4 trillion - the federal government is evermore a part of our personal lives. No wonder an overwhelming majority of Americans are so unsatisfied with the direction of the country.
From farm bills that exemplify corporate welfare and harmful market distortions to No Child Left Behind (a thoughtless waste of time and resources) domestic spending has ballooned and become more sluggish, intrusive bureaucracies occupy our institutions more than ever before.
The Prescription Drug Benefit started with a projected 10-year cost of $400 billion and has now increased to over a trillion dollars, showcasing the way government programs are inherently expanding in nature and never ever have a shrinking tendency.
The overall entitlement programs are similarly blowing up. Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security will rise from their current 8.4 percent share of gross domestic product to 18.6 percent in 2050. Entitlements now consume 61 percent of the federal budget and by 2013 it will be 69 percent.
Not enough government? Need Obama to inject us with the cure of more command and management from Washington?
Some estimate this reckless and illegitimate war - solely the product of a giant, deceiving national security state, of a government so big its ultimate goal is to forcefully transform the subordinate governing systems of an entire region of the globe - will cost between two or three trillion dollars. The military, an essential arm of big government, is now more lavishly funded, active and overstretched into every corner of the world than ever before.
The creation of bureaucracies like the U.S. Department of Homeland Security - whose budget has tripled to $36 billion since Bush reorganized 22 agencies from nine different departments into one cohesive and unneeded apparatus of the national security state - have been a tendency of Bush and his view of government.
Big Brother now listens to the phone calls and reads the e-mails of citizens in an overarching illustration of big government excess so blatant that it's hard to imagine anybody ever argued that Bush or Congress ever considered heavy government intrusions as the solution or a secondary resort.
The government has now even forcefully allocated over $700 billion of taxpayer money to buy up stakes in the biggest banks of the financial sector, as if the solution to our economic woes were massive government takeovers of the economy. Can anybody honestly be calling for the return of an expanded, more active federal government?
It's impossible to accurately portray just how enormous and unrestrained our modern governing institutions have become. The appropriate illustration of the thousands of intricate ways the government uses the license the electorate gives it to intrude upon our lives and infringe upon our freedoms will escape this column, but we all ought to care.
And now Obama, who as president has promised to magically create more jobs, quality, affordable health care for every single American, lower gas prices, love and harmony on the international scene, psychological security and stress-free American existences for all, stands before us deriding the small government frame of mind and cries for bigger and bigger government.
It's no wonder Peggy Joseph, a Barack Obama supporter, when interviewed at a rally said of Obama's speech and his incoming presidency, "It was a touching moment. I never thought this day would ever happen. I won't have worry about putting gas in my car, I won't have to worry about paying my mortgage [...] He's going to help me."
Presidents not only lead the entire three branches of the government, but they provide for every pressing need of the average American.
Is there any purer demonstration of the 'nanny state' than this current big government and its expected growth? Will this presidency mark the return of big government, or has it been here to stay for many, many decades?
Let us abandon this fraudulent demarcation between Republicans and Democrats, that the former like less government and the latter shoot for more. Both are for big government, neither for liberty.
John Glaser is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at jwglaser@student.umass.edu.
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