Reason #5: D.C.’s Alphabet Soup

“A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away.” - Barry Goldwater

In the late 1700’s, the federal government had a total of four departments: State, Treasury, Justice, and War (Defense). Over the next 160+ years, it added another four. But in the last 55 years alone, eight new giant departments came into being, including HHS, HUD, the VA, and the EPA.

This alphabet soup of new bureaucracies has caused federal spending to boil over. According to a paper written for the Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis, our government spent about $30 per citizen in inflation adjusted dollars in 1789. In 1910, that number was only up to $129. But by 2004, thanks to all those massive new departments, it had mushroomed to over $7000 for each American.

We can thank our shortsighted lifetime politicians for this free-for-all of spending. When times are good economically and the government is flush with tax money, they spend every cent they can brewing up more ABC agencies. But the economy fluctuates and tax revenues go up and down with it. Meanwhile, those new agencies just keep growing. They never shrink. They never stay the same. Like greedy weeds, they get larger and larger.

Every year, the bureaucrats and political appointees staffing government agencies demand more money. These annual funding increase requests are as regular as the cherry blossoms in Washington. And lawmakers always grant them because they want to be able to say they supported education or funded health care or were strong on national defense or some other election slogan-worthy sentiment. What it amounts to is the inmates running the asylum as legions of unelected bureaucrats soak up vast amounts of the national treasury to operate extremely powerful government institutions - all without being accountable to anyone. Talk about taxation without representation!

How did things get this bad? How did the federal bureaucracy become so large and so mighty? After World War II, our economy exploded and tax revenues poured into the federal treasury. Lyndon Johnson and the congresses of his day responded by creating vast new government departments for his Great Society programs. At the same time, Johnson and Congress continued to pour huge amounts of money into the Vietnam War. While the economy was doing well, the national treasury could afford these massive outlays for both “guns and butter.” But when the oil crisis shocked our economy several years after Johnson left office and tax revenues went down, our politicians refused to rein in spending to stay within our means. They didn’t want to make the politically unpopular choice of reducing services or programs, or even maintaining their current sizes. So they simply borrowed what they needed to keep the government monster growing.

When Johnson left office, we were $353 billion in the red. By the end of the 70’s, we owed over $900 billion. And since then, things have gotten much, much worse. Johnson’s budget busting was a pittance compared to the hole we’re in today - nearly $10 trillion and counting.

NEXT: Reason #6: Our Bloated Government, Expensive and Incompetent