It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
Category: government
Government vs. the people
You can’t be for big government, big taxes, and big bureaucracy and still be for the little guy.
Centralized power
A power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various powerful interests, combined in one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in banks.
The camel’s nose under the tent
A little government involvement is just as dangerous as a lot — because the first leads inevitably to the second.
The enemy is the State
[The State] has taken on a vast mass of new duties and responsibilities; it has spread out its powers until they penetrate to every act of the citizen, however secret; it has begun to throw around its operations the high dignity and impeccability of a State religion; its agents become a separate and superior caste, with authority to bind and loose, and their thumbs in every pot. But it still remains, as it was in the beginning, the common enemy of all well-disposed, industrious and decent men.
Honesty in government
An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.
Legislative priorities
It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.
The pretext of ‘emergency’
Emergency does not create power.
Emergency does not increase granted power or remove or diminish the restrictions imposed upon power granted or reserved.
Continue reading “The pretext of ‘emergency’”
Economic power vs. political power
Always remember the difference between economic power and political power: You can refuse to hire someone’s services or buy his products in the private sector and go somewhere else instead. In the public sector, though, if you refuse to accept a politician’s or bureaucrat’s product or services you go to jail. Ultimately, after all, all regulations are observed and all taxes are paid at gunpoint.
Built-in excess
Government has within it a tendency to abuse its powers.