WE ALREADY HAVE SMALL GOVERNMENT -- WHY NOT USE IT?

I watched several of the Sunday morning talk shows last Sunday such as Face the Nation and Meet the Press, to name two, and I couldn’t help noticing the number of times one person or another mentioned the need for officials in Washington, particularly the Obama administration, to focus more attention on creating jobs.  Jobs, jobs, jobs.  We need jobs!  We need to put more people to work.  And the government, meaning Washington D.C., is not doing nearly enough to get more people working.

I could not help but notice also the number of times someone mentioned the need for smaller government.  We need to get big government out of our lives.  We need to return to the ideals of limited government our founding fathers envisioned.

Of course, no one wanted the government to stop funding rebuilding the infrastructure of our country by cutting back on roads and bridges projects, or stop stimulating the economy, or stop supporting the dairy farmers, soybean farmers, cotton farmers or some other agricultural field important among the constituents of their state.  Limited government is fine as long as it does not limit my income or chances for career or industry growth.

Then, I remembered, we have smaller government.  We have small government that is (more or less) responsive to local needs and local pressure.  We call it city government, county government, and state government.  Why aren’t we demanding that these governments limit their size and expenditures?  The answer I fear is that we know that cutting back on local government spending means cutting back on local jobs and contracts to local businesses.

 Okay.  Patronage jobs are an essential part of local government.  The people we help elect are supposed to reward their supporters by sending some jobs and money their way.

But why is it that when it comes to creating jobs, we always turn to Washington?

When was the last time you heard a town supervisor or county chair talk about creating jobs?  How many state governors campaign on a platform to create jobs in their state while reducing expenditures, and how many of us realistically expect them to deliver on any such campaign promise?  We hear repeatedly that most jobs in this country are created by small businesses.  Moreover, small businesses as opposed to large nationwide corporations tend to be local -- state and county local or, maybe, regional.  Isn’t this the domain of local (small) governments?  Why do we not expect these governments to do more to stimulate job growth in our locality?

If we truly want smaller government, we should stop always looking to Washington to solve every problem.  Let us instead ask our already small local governments to start doing their job.  Let’s begin by asking small LOCAL government officials (city, town, county, state) to step up and start doing what we elected them for: to exercise the leadership they promised during their campaigns and work together (across party lines) to solve LOCAL problems in a manner that satisfies LOCAL concerns and conditions.

Local government officials are more responsive to local pressures.  After all, they live nearby and cannot so easily put distance between them and their constituents.  It’s time we stop bitching and moaning about big government and start complaining to local elected officials about not doing more to create jobs, stimulate the economy, balance local budgets, and deal responsibly with local problems and conditions.