Government has become a mathematical dunce.
The Founding Fathers, in our original—this is important—original Constitution, intended that we divide power.
Instead, the federal government now adds programs, subtracts freedoms, and multiplies its authority.
Division is a huge concept in the Constitution. We were supposed to share government power to keep it under control. Congress created the laws: the House listened to the people, the Senate listened to the states. When they agreed, we got good law. When they didn’t, we got no law. The president OKed the law and assured enforcement. The Supreme Court checked the law against the Constitution for a good fit. The system worked well. For a hundred + years we prospered. We created half the world’s goods with 6% of the world’s population. That is impressive. Life was good; not perfect—never perfect—but very good.
Then “new math” arrived to ruin a good system. Instead of dividing, government began to add, subtract, and multiply.
Addition came first. “They” began to add powers to the federal government. Twenty-six original duties became 2600 agencies. “They” added departments, agencies, bureaucracies, consultants, committees, regulations and regulators, and czars. The payroll had to expand, so they added income taxes, federal taxes, permits, licensing fees, zoning fees, and phony money printed on demand. “They” were warming up to this math system.
Subtraction came next. Almost every federal program “they” created subtracted a right from the states. The Founders said states had the real power. That would stop federal gorging and keep government close to the people, who could squelch it when it got out of line. States became weaklings as their powers were subtracted. They could no longer stop the bullying feds.
The feds were getting good with their math, and they found more subtractions. Every right they sucked up subtracted freedom from the people, as well as the states. Ordinary Joes couldn’t see through the fog of confusing rules and taxes, so they quit watching. With nobody supervising, the feds quickly realized that “When the cat’s away the mice will play”. Unsupervised, “they” went to town on their new math subtractions, slashing rights and freedoms as they went.
Multiplication was the inevitable result. With added power, subtracted state authority, and subtracted citizen oversight, the federal government multiplied its authority to control, manage, and direct everything that breathed and own everything that didn’t. It now regulates or owns people, industry, commerce, agriculture, communication, transportation, and the arts. It has taken over whole slices of American life. Not satisfied, it has now begun to control not just what people do, but what they think. This new math is beginning to pinch till it “ouches”.
I don’t know about everyone else, but I miss the old math: 2 + 2 = 4, 4 – 1 = 3, and 3 x 4 = 12. I also miss divided power, small government, and limited taxation. This new math may be working for government but it doesn’t work for citizens. We should rethink this. Maybe “they” aren’t dunces after all, but dubious geniuses, instead.
Maybe we need to come up with our own new math. We could add watchful citizens, subtract 2574 federal agencies, and multiply the number of citizens who get involved in restoring our original Constitution. We could then divide the resultant prosperity amongst ourselves—the large and small of us—to get back what we once had.
