AMERICANS DISLIKE BIG GOVERNMENT

A recent poll reveals that Americans have little faith in our
federal government, but even a little may be too much. 

by F.R. Duplantier

     A recent survey of 1,003 Americans, conducted by pollsters
Peter Hart and Robert Teeter on behalf of the Council for
Excellence in Government, documented the not-so-surprising fact
that our fellow countrymen consider government programs and
policies to be more of a hindrance than a help in their pursuit of
the American dream.  Fifty-six percent of all adults surveyed found
such programs and policies not helpful.  Republicans were more
likely to hold this view than Democrats, but even forty-seven
percent of Democrats agreed.  What's more, forty-seven percent of
persons receiving government assistance also shared this view.
     
     "Government is not the ally, but the enemy, even according to
people on government assistance," concludes pollster Hart.  "The
unbridled optimism of our parents' generation has been replaced
with skepticism and uncertainty," says Hart, thanks in large
measure to government failures.  Only 15 percent of survey
respondents expressed great confidence in the federal government,
down from 45 percent 20 years ago.      

Oddly enough, few respondents saw any need to cut existing programs.  
Instead, they recommended more effective management of programs on 
the federal level and the shifting of programs from the federal to 
state and local levels.  "The public has not really given up on 
government," Hart insists.  "When you give them a choice, they will 
tell you that we need better management, not necessarily smaller 
government or giving all the responsibility to the states."  As with 
most polls, there's good news and bad news.  The good news is, Americans
are widely dissatisfied with big government, as we should be. 
After all, the documentation has been piling up for decades that
the so-called Great Society was a colossal failure, and that
disadvantaged groups targeted for government assistance wound up
worse off than they were before.  Now, after decades of denial,
even the proponents of paternalism seem willing to concede that
good intentions are not enough.    

The bad news is, hardly anybody recognizes the obvious solution. 
We seem to have little apprehension about the size of government, 
but only about its effectiveness.  This attitude reveals a frightening 
ignorance of our country's brief history.  Does no one remember what our
Founding Fathers thought of government?  Has everyone forgotten
that they viewed it, not as a friend or a benefactor, but as a
necessary evil?  Did no one learn in school that the primary
purpose of our Constitution is to limit the size of government? 
     
The problem isn't the way big government is operating.  The
problem is big government itself and the massive amounts of money
it spends.  The solution is not to make big government more
effective.  Look at all the harm big government has done in the
last 30 years; if it had been any more effective, we might all be
on the dole!  The solution is not to make big government more
effective,  but to make it smaller -- and especially to give it
less money to spend.  

Behind The Headlines is produced by America's Future Inc., 
a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to the
preservation of our free-enterprise system and our constitutional
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