He who governs least ...

• Author: Bresler, Robert J.
• Position: United States central government - STATE OF THE NATION

THE BELIEF THAT a strong central government can solve the inequities of U.S. society has been the hallmark of American liberalism since the beginning of the 20th century. From Woodrow Wilson to Barack Obama, the expansion of government has been at the heart of the liberal agenda. It was not always so. In the beginning years of the Republic, two patron saints of American liberalism, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, believed the government that governed least, governed best. In his first inaugural address, Pres. Jefferson noted, "A wise and frugal government which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government."

Liberals long have left Jefferson's creed in the dust. In fact, the liberal mantra of big government has been so powerful that even Republican presidents who profess otherwise have fallen under its spell. None of the powerful machinery of the state so amplified by Franklin D. Roosevelt was altered under Dwight D. Eisenhower, the first post New Deal Republican president. Eisenhower realized that Social Security, unemployment insurance, and farm subsidies were politically untouchable. He even added a massive interstate highway system to the mix.

After another round of government expansion under Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon followed Eisenhower's example and left LBJ's programs intact. Medicare and Federal aid to education, to name just two, became a permanent part of the political landscape. Nixon, however, did Eisenhower one better and added a raft of environmental and consumer protection laws, including the Occupation Safety and Health, Consumer Product Safety, Clean Air, Clean Water, and Coastal Zone Management Acts. Moreover, the Environmental Protection Agency was established under Nixon. Herbert Stein, Nixon's chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, wrote, "Probably more new regulation was imposed on the economy during the Nixon Administration than in any other presidency since the New Deal."

Ronald Reagan, the first post-New Deal president with genuine disdain for big government, could not scale back this behemoth. The only programs he succeeded in eliminating were Revenue Sharing and the Comprehensive Education and Training Act. Neither George H.W. Bush nor George W. Bush made any serious effort to reduce the size of government...