A Foolish and Spendthrift Government

"…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." Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801

These words, spoken by Thomas Jefferson during his Inaugural Address of 1801, expresses the attitude of one of our most famous, and in some cases, most beloved, Founding Fathers of what the government is supposed to be and how it is to perform. And by just looking at it, one can see how far America has moved from this ideal of good government.

Now, this is not to say that this is how all of the Founders thought of the proper role and purpose of government. Some, such as Alexander Hamilton, saw the need of an energetic government, one that exercised a greater deal of authority and regulated more of how Americans were to live. And while some of his views were in actuality good and necessary (a subject for another time), these were not the ideals of Jefferson, and in reality a hands off government was more the dream of the Patriot generation than anything else. An excessively strong federal government was not the ideal that Jefferson and a number of the Founders who signed the Declaration of Independence had in mind, nor what they fought for.

Jefferson, when he took office, stood for a hands off form of government, one that did not intrude greatly into the everyday lives of Americans, leaving them free to live their lives as they saw fit. To put it succinctly, he stood for a "wise and frugal government…" What exactly did he mean by that? The Founding Fathers had a distinct view of what the government was supposed to be and the purpose and role of elected officials. First and foremost, any elected government official was to be wise and virtuous. The whole point of a person running for office is to do what is best for the constituents of the area that a person is running to represent, whether it is local, state or national. One is not to be running for office for personal gain or aggrandizement. Neither was the role of representative, senator or president ever meant to be lifelong career choice. One was do their part, and when it came time, step down. It was to be a position of service to ones countrymen. One did not go into politics at first for the money. Pay for the congressmen, senators and president was not that much in the beginning. Many of them could have made much more with their pre-politics jobs than with what they were making as congressmen, senators, or even president. And notice how four of the first five presidents, all members of the Patriot generation, actually gave up the office after serving for just two terms. They understood that it was not proper to hold onto the power forever, and that was not what the people wanted. Two of those men, Madison and Monroe, were still fairly young, and could have kept going for at least one more term each if they had wanted it. But they did not. They voluntarily gave up power to propagate the advancement of the government they had founded. They understood the necessity of abdicating power in a republican democracy.

To what end was the government to function? According to Jefferson, as stated in the above quote, the purpose was to "restrain men from injuring one another…" which seems rather obscure if one does not look at the meaning behind it. The men of this time had grown up on the political philosophy of men such as John Locke, Montesquieu, David Hume, and the like. These men saw government as an institution in place to take over from the rule of every man for himself, which was the way it worked in a state of nature. Now, with mankind having left this state and instituted government, there were different rules. The government was there to enforce those rules and to protect the rights of the people, those rights being life, liberty and property. To put it simply, the government is there to ensure that order is kept. For what purpose was the Constitution established? It is all right there in the preamble: to "establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…" This is what the men who met in Philadelphia had in mind when they established the Constitution, short, simple and to the point. Now, the federal government had other jobs to perform to make sure all of this happened, but they were strictly enumerated, and had more to do with the overall scheme of things, and not the little, everyday things that were more attuned to being handled by state and local governments.

Other than what was enumerated as the purpose and job of government? They were to be strictly hands off. They were to leave the citizens "otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement…" What does this mean? Basically, the government cannot tell us how to live our everyday lives. They cannot tell us what kind of jobs we can work. It is not their place to tell us how much money we are allowed to bring in per annum. There is no place for the government to tell us what to read, say, or do, as long as it is lawful (i.e. not treasonous, slanderous or libelous.) The government is to let Americans live their lives how they want to live it, and to put no restrictions on their "pursuit of happiness." When the government begins to tell the citizens how much money they are allowed to make, or begins to disproportionately tax individuals because of what they make annually, then it is becoming a government of tyranny, and not one of freedom. The citizens of this country are to be at liberty, not hostages to the government.

This brings us to the last point made by Jefferson here, which is that the government is to "not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned." Now, this does not mean that we should not pay taxes. While Jefferson had a strong aversion to taxing the citizens, and did his best to cut back taxes, our taxes do a certain amount of good for us. They go to things such as fixing roads, making sure that our country is defended properly and ensures that the government is able to function. However, what Jefferson is saying is that the government should not, under any circumstances, overly tax the people and take from them the money that they have worked hard to earn for no good reason. While we should pay a certain tax in order for the country to sustain itself, and so that the states and local jurisdictions can perform properly, Americans today pay tax money that ends up going to wasteful spending programs that just take away the hard earned dollars of Americans and waste them. We have become a welfare state that hands out millions of dollars to people who are doing nothing, and are subsisting on the taxpayers (not the government) to survive, and doing nothing to even try and get out of this rut. There are hundreds of programs like this that are a complete waste. And while there are those who speak out against it, there are those who propagate the system and are trying their hardest to get them expanded. They are attempting to create a country that is wholly dependent upon the government to survive, instead of being independent and subsisting on their own initiative.

And as has already been stated, the government is not to excessively tax the people, tax them unfairly or punish them for having made more money and being more successful than others. Just because a person has had more success than others does not mean that they have been unjust or unfair, nor is it right to assume that because a person has more wealth, they are evil. If a person has the God given talent and intelligence to make the best of their lives and gifts, and they make money in the process, more power to them. If they have done this legally, then they have every right to enjoy the fruits of their labor. If they choose to use that wealth to help those in need, they are free to do that. However, if they choose to hold onto their wealth and use it for themselves, well, that is their prerogative as well. This is an issue of personal morals, and not the domain of the government.

By unjustly taxing the people, a government that was instituted to do good perverts its cause, its purpose. This is one of the reasons that the United States was formed in the first place. The American colonists were being taxed by a government where they had no say, on the things that they used in their everyday lives. The taxes did not directly benefit them; the government benefitted, and it did nothing for the colonists. As was stated by Jefferson in the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms in 1776, the government of Great Britain had "undertaken to give and grant our money without our consent, though we have ever exercised an exclusive right to dispose of our own property." Does this sound similar to something going on today? We are seeing the same things begin to happen today, and it is our very own government that is the agency perpetrating this action. Hard working Americans are being taxed more and more to pay for government programs that are of no benefit to them and help to perpetuate a society rife with idleness and indolence.

Instead of a "wise and frugal" government, what we have now in the United States is one that is foolish and spendthrift, one that is ever willing to pick the pockets of its own people to fund useless projects and to pay for others that benefit the few, and do not promote the general welfare. The dream of the Founders has been shattered to a million pieces. No longer are we guided by their vision of a wise and virtuous government, but by the vision of Europeans whose plans have failed. These so called politicians are becoming a blight upon our society with an inclination for spending the taxpayers money while wheedling their way out of even doing their own part. These men and women are for the most part without virtue or wisdom as to how to run a government. They have foolishly led America down a path that has been gone down by many before it and it is the path to destruction. And instead of it being a government that is far off and distant to us, where we have no say whatsoever, it is our very own government, with the men and women whom we have elected to represent us, who are carrying out this destructive plan. And this is wholly unacceptable.