Would you like less government? How about none?

I'm still sick! My biggest problem right now is that I can hardly hear anything. It's like holding two pillows over you ears. And my wife and son are sick now, too (thank God, our daughter and my mother-in-law are well). So, I'm in a bad mood. Perhaps that explains this post.

Yesterday was Tax Day. Thanks to my wife's organization, our taxes were finished weeks ago and we've already gotten our refund. I don't like paying taxes. I don't like it when our taxes go up. I don't like needing to change the oil in the car. I don't like taking medicine. But they are sometimes necessary things to do. There are those who think we don't need to lose so much of our hard-earned money through taxes. What does the government do for us anyway?

In his first inauguration speech, Ronald Reagan is often quoted as saying, "Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." This is a famous quote of his and at first it seems he is advocating anarchy. No government. But to understand that he is not saying that, you have to look at his entire sentence. [Link to text of the speech] "In this present crisis," begins the sentence. So, he was saying that in this particular case, the government was causing (or at least aggravating) the problem. He, of course, used his position in the government to do something about the problem and he used his ability to get a Congress controlled by the other party to go along with most of his ideas. He didn't cut down the size of the government in his eight years in the White House. He never presented a balanced budget to Congress (supposedly, I'd have to look that up).

There are a lot of folks saying the Republican party needs to get back to its roots to make an impact on this country. These folks point back to Ronald Reagan as the standard to be met. That may be but I think the current generation is losing track of what happened back in the early 80's. What our country always needs (no matter which party is in power) is a strong check on that power. While it looks like our country is going deeper into debt to try to get out of the problem we're in, we do need people continually calling attention to the size of the deficit to force those in power to keep it in mind. Just as we needed people continually pointing out the costs of going into Iraq. We need people who are questioning each step made along the road to recovery (i.e. will this particular stimulus really help the country recover?) just as we needed critics who complained about the stresses "No Child Left Behind" placed on school districts with no additional funding.

I just don't like it when people quote part of Mr. Reagan's remarks and say the government should just get out of the way. The government does only harm. We don't need a government. Free enterprise and checks and balances of the marketplace will cause everything to work out. That is just plain wrong. Just look at Somalia. There is no government. Just warlords and organized crime. How is that working for you?