{"id":311,"date":"2019-10-04T11:10:23","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T15:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.centerforsmallgovernment.com\/?page_id=311"},"modified":"2019-12-18T18:41:06","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T23:41:06","slug":"most-elected-officials-are-big-government","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.centerforsmallgovernment.com\/index.php\/most-elected-officials-are-big-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Rule of Thumb: Most Elected Officials Are Big Government"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Once in a blue moon, you&#8217;ll find a politician, usually at the local level, who not only fights to stave off more Big Government, but also proposes and works hard to cut a tax, cut spending, and <em>reduce<\/em> government meddling. Hats off to these rare patriots! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But most elected officials in America today, who have budget authority, are big government politicians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is especially true of politicians at the state and federal level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not sure this is true? Try asking one of them to sign the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.centerforsmallgovernment.com\/index.php\/the-small-government-pledge\/\">Small Government Pledge\u2120<\/a>. They will almost certainly give you excuses and deny, or put off, your request. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Politicians are &#8220;big government&#8221; if they vote for a budget that is as big or bigger than the previous budget. Or if they vote to expand government authority, taxes, spending, or debt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An official who takes a stand that existing government budgets are <em>way too big<\/em> and must always be <em>reduced<\/em> is a true, small government patriot who puts his political ambitions aside and votes in the best interests of the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many politicians, especially Republicans, talk a good game. They call themselves &#8220;libertarian.&#8221; They talk about eliminating government waste and &#8220;bringing spending under control.&#8221; Then they vote &#8220;yes&#8221; for bigger budgets. Or they vote &#8220;yes&#8221; to fund an unnecessary foreign entanglement. Or they vote &#8220;yes&#8221; to expand government powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Typical &#8220;fiscal conservatives&#8221; vote &#8220;no&#8221; on most spending items, then vote &#8220;yes&#8221; to a bigger overall budget &#8211; and wipe out every good deed they ever did. Their impact, on net, is to make government bigger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or they&#8217;re passionate about their one government program, their one exception that they work to get enacted. <a href=\"http:\/\/centerforsmallgovernment.com\/index.php\/why-small-gov-1-exception-big-gov\/\">Small government plus one exception equals big government<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A true, small government politician votes small government. <em>Every<\/em> issue. <em>Every <\/em>time. <em>No <\/em>exceptions. <em>No <\/em>excuses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Once in a blue moon, you&#8217;ll find a politician, usually at the local level, who not only fights to stave off more Big Government, but also proposes and works hard to cut a tax, cut spending, and reduce government meddling. Hats off to these rare patriots! But most elected officials in America today, who have &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.centerforsmallgovernment.com\/index.php\/most-elected-officials-are-big-government\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Rule of Thumb: Most Elected Officials Are Big Government<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerforsmallgovernment.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/311"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerforsmallgovernment.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerforsmallgovernment.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerforsmallgovernment.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerforsmallgovernment.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerforsmallgovernment.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":517,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerforsmallgovernment.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/311\/revisions\/517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerforsmallgovernment.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}