Government Always Grows

Creative destruction works in markets. You try an idea. It bombs. You go out of business. Governments are quite different, however, which is why I find Mickey Kaus' explanation of his reasons for voting for John Kerry and John Trial Lawyer Edwards so depressing. Kaus explains that "it would be nice to make some progress on national health care, even if it's only dialectical "try a solution and find out it doesn't work" progress." Name one government program that was tried, failed, and then got repealed? Welfare? Okay, that's one, but exactly how many decades did it take to repeal it? And, anyway, we didn’t repeal it, we just "reformed" it. Government NEVER tries a solution and then ditches it when it doesn't work. Once you try a particular solution, all sorts of constituencies develop an interest in keeping it alive (not least of which the bureaucrats who run it). Hence, the irreversible growth of government - government just adds a new agency to try a different solution, while continuing to fund the old failed one.