Liberty Pen: Uncommon Knowledge With Peter Robinson- Thomas Sowell: 'Growth Of Government'

Source:Liberty Pen- Peter Robinson, interviewing Conservative columnist Thomas Sowell, for Uncommon Knowledge.

"Professor Sowell comments on how the Founder's vision of limited government transmogrified into its present state. Liberty Pen" 

From Liberty Pen

When it comes to the Federal Government especially, Libertarians and Conservative-Libertarians, their arguments against Federal intervention in the country, economy especially is based on the U.S. Constitution. And they argue that the Federal Government does way too much and most of the things that they do are unconstitutional, according to the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution that lays out a few things for the Federal Government, mostly having to do with national security. 

What the let's say Center-Right fail to mention or recognize and I believe mention, because people who generally make this argument have a pretty good idea of the U.S. Constitution and what's in it and what it means, is that there are two clauses in the U.S. Constitution that the Federal Government has used to justify in Federal Courts its activities and programs. 

The Commerce Clause, which gives the FEDS the ability to regulate interstate commerce. And the Welfare Clause, which essentially gives the Federal Government the ability or responsibility to look after the welfare of its people. 

The FEDS have used these clauses to justify programs like Social Security, Medicare, Securities and Exchange Commission, and others. And that if the Federal Government is to live up to its responsibilities in these areas, they need mechanisms to accomplish this meaning programs and agencies. 

My issues with a lot with what the Federal Government does, does not get to the constitutionality generally. The Patriot Act would be an exception to this because I believe it violates the Fourth Amendment, but thats a different discussion. 

My issues as a Liberal with a lot of what the Federal Government does, gets too are they the best qualified or not to be doing x and fill in x yourself, or is there a better way that the issue that they are trying to addressed should be addressed. And I believe a lot of times, there's a better way of handling the issue that they are trying to address. 

I'll use Public Housing as an example - to me thats clearly an issue for local government's as well as the private sector, that they could work in partnership on that the FEDS could regulate, but not manage. Similar to addressing homelessness. 

There are a whole range of programs that I don't believe the Federal Government should be running, that could be run better and be more cost-effective with less red tape and be more beneficial to the people that they serve. I'm not talking about eliminating these programs that Libertarians tend to talk about. But having them run by different services and organizations and where the FEDS would regulate them. 

One positive aspect that libertarianism has brought to American politics is that it's gotten a lot of people to rethink the role of government and the role of the Federal Government in particular. What it does, what it does well, what it's not as effective at and what it should be doing to begin with, which I believe is healthy. 

We should always be examining this question because we pay for the government we get good or bad, so we might as well have a pretty good idea exactly what we are paying for and what we are getting out of our money.