An oak tree, left to its own devices, grows to great heights. Its branches and roots grab every bit of sky and earth they can reach. Its high limbs and tangled roots are difficult, if not impossible, to see.
A bonsai is a very small tree. It grows only as big as we want it to be. Its small size allows us to inspect every branch.
A tree can be a bonsai, but only if we perpetually and aggressively prune both its roots and its branches.
Government, left to its own devices, gets bigger and bigger every year. Politicians tax and control every area of society they can get away with. The bigger government gets, the more damage it does.
Because of its sheer size, no one knows what goes on within government’s massive bureaucracies. Not even the legislators who vote for it. They pass bills every day that they don’t even read, much less understand.
Government can be small – only if we regularly and rigorously prune it back.
We must remove every Big Government Program that does more harm than good or that violates individual rights.
We must shrink any government function that costs too much or that grows beyond its usefulness.
The Center For Small Government aims to make government tightly pruned and small – like a bonsai.
