Kerby Anderson

The American people are being squeezed out by big government, big business, and big labor. Former Senator Jim DeMint made that claim in his book, Falling in Love with America Again.

When he was on my radio program, he talked about what Edmund Burke called “the little platoons.” Civic groups, volunteer organizations, and churches are making a positive impact on their communities. Unfortunately, the bigs (as he calls them) are taking away our liberty and squeezing out groups doing good.

He also makes a convincing case that our government is too big to manage. Let’s start with some basic numbers. The federal government will spend $6 trillion this year. “A large chunk of that money will not achieve its intended purpose.” The president and Congress are supposed to manage a $6 trillion bureaucracy with 9 million employees. No one in history has ever managed such a large organization.

The current president has never managed anything. The previous president did manage a significant set of companies. But even if we chose the best manager in the world, it is doubtful that he or she could manage such a huge bureaucracy.

Try this comparison. The number one company in the Fortune 500 is WalMart. It has total revenues of $559 billion and employs 2.3 million people. “If it were part of the government, WalMart would not even be the second biggest federal program.”

Consider the extent of fraud in the government. Medicare fraud is estimated to be $60 billion, or about seven times as much money as the combined profits of the nation’s ten largest insurance companies. “Compared to the federal government, the largest corporation in America is a mom-and-pop store.”

The problem is simple. We the people are being squeezed by the bigs.