By Jack Gleason ——Bio and Archives--June 6, 2024

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Most people think “government” is just something that runs in the background. We pay taxes once a year and for that we get our roads paved, police come when we really need them, and our kids have schools to go to.

This is a view from the 1950’s that has persisted for the last 70 years. “Focus on our families and let our elected leaders do their jobs.”

America is the richest country in the world and, sadly, there are people who want to take advantage of our wealth for their own benefit. The money we spend on just roads and schools is enormous ($206 Billion and $927 Billion in 2022), so the contracts awarded for government work are highly coveted. So those who do government work will often make campaign contributions to office seekers in hopes of getting lucrative business deals.

Fast forward seventy years and we find a vast network of lobbying firms, industry associations and special interest groups desperately trying to influence elections to put their guys in office and get a piece of the federal budget, which was $65 Billion in 1955 and is now $6 Trillion in 2023. That’s an increase of almost 100 times.

Another important function of government is law enforcement. In 1955, law enforcement meant keeping our streets safe and fighting crime, now our Department of Justice is involved in social issues and politics.

So our view of government as the paver of roads, builder of schools and managers of our........

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