RAHN: Constitutional fix to overspending - Washington Times

RAHN: Constitutional fix to overspending - Washington Times

Tea Party members are going to be very unhappy. Many of the new members of the House and Senate that the Tea Party helped elect are already becoming part of the political class, as evidenced by their votes for continued farm subsidies, refusals to put reasonable limits on the growth of the food- stamp program, support for unaccountable international organizations, and on and on. Members of Congress vote for unjustified spending because they think the recipients will reward them with campaign contributions and praise while the majority of the electorate will never notice.

Well-known and highly respected public opinion pollster Scott Rasmussen explains in his new book, “The People’s Money,” why the political class always ends up supporting far more spending and taxing than the majority of voters want. Mr. Rasmussen notes: “The gap exists today because just about every budget-cutting proposal favored by the American people involves shifting power away from official Washington. … At the other extreme is the Political Class dream of even more power, authority and money flowing into Washington.”

The benefits of any specific government spending program tend to be concentrated, while the costs are dispersed among almost everyone. As a result, those who benefit are willing to spend time and money to line their own pocketbooks, while the cost of each program is normally so small as not to be noticed by the taxpayers or worth the necessary effort to stop it. But the sum total of all the spending is what kills liberty and the economy. This is why almost all democracies eventually fail.