Ever since man created the institution of government, the argument over its proper size has been a defining issue in nearly every public debate. That argument has become even more apparent over the past few years here in our country, the birthplace of limited government.
When challenged about the size of government, the typical response of a “Big Government” person is to point towards the functions of government that are universally accepted as its domain and ask if we really should get rid of those. A perfect example was last year’s government shut down. Closing national parks, monuments and White House tours was not about saving money or cost cutting, it was designed to make the public feel the pain of life with a reduced Federal Government…of course if the public had gotten a vote, they surely would have pinched pennies in less dramatic and more practical fashion.
The Statists have become experts at using this smoke screen to shield the ever advancing tentacles of government involvement. They are smart for doing so, even the most rabid of Libertarians acknowledge that there are many areas that should be under the authority of the Federal Government. After all our Founders were pioneers in limited government, yet still built a Federal Government with adequate powers to assert itself.
In the modern era, one of the universally recognized areas of federal authority is the Centers for Disease Control. Despite some budget cuts during the past few years, it would be very hard to find any reasonable person that would suggest defunding or getting rid of the CDC.
Considering the events in West Africa over the past few months, this should be a perfect opportunity for the CDC to shine and show people that the Federal Government should and can do some things very well. However, we are witnessing an epic failure by the CDC to seem even remotely competent at its field of authority.
It would seem that the only people surprised by the arrival of Ebola in the United States are the senior staff of the CDC.
This failure cannot be explained away as a “surprise” attack on an embassy or a few rogue agents at the IRS. This ineffectual response has come directly from the top of the CDC even though they had months to prepare for an incident of this kind. It has only been during the past few generations that quarantine of foreign visitors is not standard practice. Ships often spent weeks sitting at anchor in port under quarantine when traveling to the most infectious parts of the world. In our life time, quarantine procedure has been forgotten as we conquered some of the most deadly viruses, yet there are diseases that still defy modern science. Thanks to the ease of modern transportation those diseases don’t have to spend months traveling across oceans to reach our shores, they can be here in a matter of hours in a comfy seat on a jetliner. This fact is so simple that sure any child is capable of understanding the risk, yet our highly paid specialists at the CDC seem to believe that such an occurrence is practically impossible. Not only were we unable to stop the disease from reaching our shores, the CDC has left the first responders utterly unprepared and misinformed.
Those of us who are doubtful about the increasing size of government find this informative and depressing. Even though we believe in limited government, we would hope that certain agencies of it are organized enough to rise to the challenges that warranted their creation. Recent events have proved us wrong in our hopes, but correct in our philosophy.
The arguments for a larger Federal Government hinge on the fact that there are things that can’t be done as individuals and must require a federal solution. However, time and time again the Federal institutions we have placed our trust in have proven unworthy of that trust.
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