When well-designed institutions function properly, people thrive.
Few institutions have been more ingeniously designed than the U.S.
federal government via the Constitution in 1787. This auspicious
beginning more than two centuries ago helps explain why the U.S.
remains a magnet for opportunity seekers, students, entrepreneurs,
dissidents, and persecuted believers. Yet for decades now,
America's federal government has been underperforming. Social
Security and Medicare face looming insolvency. The federal
government's "war on poverty" has failed to "end poverty" and
arguably made it worse. In 2012, the United States Postal Service
lost more money than the nation spent on the State Department, and
Amtrak has lost money every year since being created in 1971. How
can an enduring institution, so thoughtfully crafted, now produce
such poor results? The federal government has grown so much because
it serves a new and different vision, American Progressivism.
American Progressives believed that democratically elected,
public-minded federal politicians and employees could use federal
programs to solve the nation's greatest problems in a way no other
American institution could. This idea justified the federal
government's massive expansion: today, the federal government runs
over 1,500 programs and employs over 5% of the U.S. workforce. Yet
federal results do not match Progressive expectations. Three key
problems - "windfall politics", "the government surcharge", and
"complexity failure" - overlooked by American Progressives explain
the federal government's consistent failures. American
Progressive's rosy-eyed view of human nature and political
institutions have not been borne out by the evidence. In an era of
substantial political fermentation and debate, rediscovering and
re-applying American Republicanism represents the best path forward
for the United States. The federal government should retain many
necessary responsibilities but turn over those where it has failed
- for social welfare, federally provided services, and retirement
savings among others - to the country's state governments, civil
society, and individual citizens respectively.
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