“Limited government” is one of the key goals of the Cato Institute and libertarians in general. Research shows that “small governments . . . report better economic performance than big governments.” But it is one thing to compare two governments side by side. It is quite another thing to actually reduce the size of government.
Recent events suggest that shrinking government may be impossible. A slight majority of voters in Britain agreed to leave the European Union motivated, at least in part, by the idea that big-government bureaucrats in Brussels shouldn’t dictate policy to people in the United Kingdom. Yet actually carrying out an exit is proving to be far more difficult than imagined.
Similarly, Donald Trump campaigned for president on a promise that he would “drain the swamp,” which the Antiplanner interprets to mean reduce the size of the federal government. Many Republican members of Congress also claim to support smaller government. Yet, under a Republican Congress, deficits and debt are increasing. Meanwhile, Trump’s solution to many problems is to throw money at them. Continue reading
