Founders and 19th Century Quotes on Growth of Government

"When the income tax system was born in 1913, the New York Times published all of the required forms on one page. At that time there were 3,000 employees at the IRS. Today the tax code is lengthier than the Encyclopedia Britannica and consequently there now are 115,000 IRS employees to interpret and enforce this monstrosity. Incredibly, the IRS now has more employees than the Environmental...

"Capitol Hill seems to be in the grip of national monument hysteria. Lawmakers in both the House and Senate have introduced a flurry of bills to limit or end presidential authority to designate areas of federal land as national monuments, an executive power that's been in place—and used extensively by presidents of both parties—for more than a century.

Sponsors of the bills are engaging...

"In a way that was inconceivable when he took office, Mr. Bush -- the advance man for the 'ownership society,' smaller and more trustworthy government, and a humble foreign policy -- increased the size and scope of the federal government to unprecedented levels."

"Many of us who believe that governments continue to grow relentlessly, at least in the economically advanced countries, have been criticized by analysts who claim that in fact the growth of government has petered out or slowed substantially. The latter group perceives us to be needlessly alarmed and faults us for a failure to acknowledge the decisive turn of events associated with the so-...

This timeline traces the growth of the Department of Agriculture from before it was created in 1862 under President Lincoln, to 2008 when "The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act" was "enacted over a presidential veto."

The Department of Defense was officially established in 1947; however, its many components such as the Department of the Navy and the Department of War were early creations in the young United States. This piece chronicles key events in the Department of Defense's evolution.

In 1977, "At the urging of President Jimmy Carter, Congress create[d] the Department of Energy, which combine[d] the Federal Energy Administration, the Energy Research and Development Administration, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission." This timeline traces events related to the Department of Energy before and after its creation.

A timeline history of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, from its roots as a federal study in 1892, its offical inception as a Presidential Cabinet post in 1965, and to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009.

This piece gives a timeline of events related to the federal Department of the Interior before and after its creation in 1849.

"One of the benefits of historical knowledge is that it brings perspective. Things that seem obvious look quite different when you realize that they are of recent origin. Things that seem inevitable do not appear so when you look at their past. One of the best examples of this is the size of modern government."

"Popular opinion holds that most of the credit (or blame) for the incredible growth of the federal government should go to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal. While Roosevelt certainly was a willing participant in that process, the federal government began its amazingly rapid growth well before the New Deal, and it is unlikely that it would be much smaller today even had FDR...

"With the exceptions of 2004 and 2005, government consumption and investment have grown more quickly than private expenditures and investment during the last decade – in the last ten years, the private sector has, on average, grown 1.2 percent annually, while the government has, on average, grown 3.5 percent annually.

In three of the past ten years, the private sector contracted. During...

"Targeted government programs can spur jobs growth. Look no further than the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which contained a wide range of policies that resulted in between 1.4 million and 4 million jobs created or maintained by the summer of 2011, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. ... Not surprisingly, though, these policies varied in their impact and...

"Here's the narrative you hear everywhere: President Obama has presided over a huge expansion of government, but unemployment has remained high. And this proves that government spending can't create jobs.

Here's what you need to know: The whole story is a myth. There never was a big expansion of government spending. In fact, that has been the key problem with economic policy in the...

"Ordinary people — not just a small fringe group of zealots — are really afraid today. They see the country they adore being attacked at all levels; they see their freedoms under assault, their life savings genuinely in jeopardy, an endlessly anemic economy, a longer period of sustained unemployment than we've experienced in a half-century and a national financial crisis, born of world-...

"In its first session in 1789, the U.S. Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789, creating the position of the attorney general, whose job it is 'to prosecute and conduct all suits in the Supreme Court in which the United States shall be concerned, and to give his advice and opinion upon questions of law when required by the President of the United States, or when requested by the heads of...

"In his Wisconsin primary victory speech, presidential aspirant Mitt Romney made some interesting observations about Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Abraham Lincoln. He seemed to indicate that he admires them, as they were what he termed 'historically great' presidents. He then went on to chide the current president for having the audacity to think of himself in the same league as...

"Speaking to a celebrity studded fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee in Beverly Hills last night, President Barack Obama humbly proclaimed he 'would put these first four months up against any prior administration since FDR.' Actually, let's do that."

"Obama's desperate protests that his anti-business rant was taken out of context are betrayed both by that very context and because they are a part of a piece — just one more component of his war against the American entrepreneurial spirit.

He would have us believe that his words 'you didn’t build that' referred to roads and bridges and not businesses.

Given his accompanying...

"For all of his talk about jobs and the economy, President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech was not an economic policy blueprint. This was a speech about power — about increasing the scale and scope of government and the power of those who govern over the American people."

"Contrary to popular myth, every Republican president since and including Herbert Hoover has increased the federal government's size, scope, or power--and usually all three. Over the last one hundred years, of the five presidents who presided over the largest domestic spending increases, four were Republicans. Include regulations and foreign policy, as well as budgets approved by a Republican...

"Government seems to grow constantly bigger and ever more intrusive in our lives.

Modern history reads like a tale of interventionism run amuck. ... Before World War II, it was widely believed that government had no business interfering with the private economy in the absence of dire necessity; after the war, Americans generally assumed that government interference was the rule rather...

"As we approach the bicentennial of the ratification of the Constitution, Americans face what many regard as a constitutional crisis. A resolution calling for a constitutional convention to limit the spending powers of government has been approved by thirty-one out of a required thirty-four states. Over two hundred other constitutional amendments, many of them dealing with economic issues,...

"When looking at Obama's spending, the key issue is what to do about the 2009 fiscal year. Since the federal government's fiscal year begins on Oct. 1, about four months took place in Bush's presidency — and those were dramatic months of fiscal crisis and emergency spending."

"In late November 1972, Governor Reagan convened a small group at the Century Plaza in Los Angeles. In his opening remarks, he observed that conventional politics, including the recent reelection of a Republican president by a large majority, would probably not be sufficient to slow the growth of government. Several other speakers summarized what little we knew about the reasons for the growth...

"Did you know that annual spending by the federal government now exceeds the 2007 level by about $1 trillion? With a slow economy, revenues are little changed. The result is an unprecedented string of federal budget deficits, $1.4 trillion in 2009, $1.3 trillion in 2010, $1.3 trillion in 2011, and another $1.2 trillion on the way this year. The four-year increase in borrowing amounts to $55,...

"On August 2, 1988, President Ronald Reagan announced that he had changed his mind about the pro-union plant-closing bill. He had vetoed it three months earlier, but now let it become law without his signature after intense pressure from presidential nominee George Bush and former Treasury Secretary James Baker, now Bush's campaign chairman. Reagan claimed that only this action would enable...

"Richard Weaver's observation that 'ideas have consequences' is especially valid when we study the growth of government in America. If we compare the attitudes of Woodrow Wilson and Calvin Coolidge on the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence we can see how their views on government intervention were a logical outcome of their conceptions of these documents."

"In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, AEI President Arthur Brooks and Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) discuss why America continues to have big government even though Americans consistently tell pollsters that they'd prefer smaller government. The Left answers that Americans suffer from some form of cognitive dissonance, in which they retain nominal loyalty to an outmoded view (from...

"Federal spending has also increased relative to gross domestic product (GDP) throughout much of this country's history, as seen in Figure 3. Expanded government during World War II is clearly evident in Figure 3, as is the slowdown in government growth during the 1980s and 1990s. Figure 1 shows that the federal government has historically spent more per person each year, but Figure 3 suggests...

"This paper examines the growth of government during this century as a result of giving women the right to vote. Using cross-sectional time-series data for 1870–1940, we examine state government expenditures and revenue as well as voting by U.S. House and Senate state delegations and the passage of a wide range of different state laws. Suffrage coincided with...

Mark Thornton discusses the Civil War and the Growth of Government. He especially discusses how the economy dealt with the issues it faced due to government intervention.

"Based on a theory known as Keynesianism, politicians are resuscitating the notion that more government spending can stimulate an economy. This mini-documentary produced by the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation examines both theory and evidence and finds that allowing politicians to spend more money is not a recipe for better economic performance."

"Traces the expanding influence of government versus several other societal groups in meeting people's needs from 1850 to present. Illustrates the impact of Roosevelt's New Deal, Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty, and the Bush/Obama nationalization of GM, Chrysler, AIG, etc."

This video contains an audio message from Franklin Roosevelt concerning his proposal to "pack" the Supreme Court with his own judicial appointees, an apparent attempt to increase the power of the executive branch.

"This Economics 101 video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity explains that excessive government spending undermines prosperity by diverting resources from the productive sector of the economy. Moreover, the two main ways of financing government -- taxes and borrowing -- cause additional economic damage."

Krugman discusses the fiscal problems in the United States. He suggests that the government needs to spend money in order to create jobs.

Joseph Stiglitz keynotes the beginning of the Roosevelt Institute's "Rediscovering Government," a project which seeks to "create a national conversation about the role of government, and promote 'active government' in the public discourse."

"Paying taxes can be tough -- it's complex, time consuming and often frustrating.

Watch as Randall Holcombe, Professor of Economics, explains how we can simplify the tax code by eliminating loopholes for special interests and lowering tax rates and how this helps improve economic growth.

It might not make paying taxes any sweeter, though."

"The last century has seen the rise of bigger and bigger governments, with very little discussion or debate on merits or the implications. Discover the truth about Big Government. It is not a practical/efficient machine, working successfully for the good of the people. The bigger government gets, the less representative, accountable and efficient it is." Part two of the video can be found...

"The organic act establishing the Department of Labor was signed on March 4, 1913, by a reluctant President William Howard Taft, the defeated and departing incumbent, just hours before Woodrow Wilson took office. A Federal Department of Labor was the direct product of a half-century campaign by organized labor for a 'Voice in the Cabinet,' and an indirect product of the Progressive Movement....

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be a Department of Treasury, in which shall be the following officers, namely: a Secretary of the Treasury, to be deemed head of the department; a Comptroller, an Auditor, a Treasurer, a Register, and an Assistant to the Secretary of the...

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be, and is hereby, established an executive department of the government of the United States, to be called the Department of Justice, of which the Attorney-General shall be the head. His duties, salary, and tenure of office shall remain as now fixed by law...

"Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:

Last month, I went to Andrews Air Force Base and welcomed home some of our last troops to serve in Iraq. Together, we offered a final, proud salute to the colors under which more than a million of our fellow citizens fought -- and several thousand gave their lives.

We gather tonight...

"No American coming to Philadelphia on this anniversary could escape being thrilled at the thought of what this commemoration means. It brings to mind events, which in the course of the century and a half that has passed since the day we are celebrating, have changed the course of human history. Then was formed the ideal of the American nation. Two years later this was put into practical...

This piece provides a copy of the original act which established the federal Department of Education. The opening pages of the document describe the reasons why the Education Department was established, some of which include "strengthen[ing] the Federal commitment to ensuring...

"Though formally established as an executive department by the First Session of Congress in 1789, many functions of the Department of the Treasury were being carried out even before the signing of the Declaration of Independence thirteen years earlier. Over the decades, the functions of the Department have expanded and grown more sophisticated to meet the needs of a developing nation."

"This Order establishes the initial organization of the Environmental Protection Agency."

"The present federal income tax dates from the act signed by President Wilson on October 3, 1913. That act was made possible by the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution adopted on February 3, 1913. Earlier federal income tax laws had been repealed or held unconstitutional. The income tax first became a significant source of revenue during World War I.

Four tax...

Writing under the pseudonym "Publius" James Madison discusses the relationship between the federal and state governments, concluding that "the powers proposed to be lodged in the federal government are as little formidable to those reserved to the individual States, as they are indispensably necessary to accomplish the purposes...

"This Nation in the past two years has become an active partner in the world's greatest war against human slavery.

We have joined with like-minded people in order to defend ourselves in a world that has been gravely threatened with gangster rule.

But I do not think that any of us Americans can be content with mere survival. Sacrifices that we and our allies are making impose upon...

"Any doubt remaining after Butler as to the scope of the General Welfare Clause was dispelled a year later in Helvering. There the Court defended the constitutionality of the 1935 Social Security Act, requiring only that welfare spending be for the common benefit as distinguished from some mere local purpose. Justice Benjamin Cardozo...

"In 1789 Congress created three Executive Departments: Foreign Affairs (later in the same year renamed State), Treasury, and War. It also provided for an Attorney General and a Postmaster General. Domestic matters were apportioned by Congress among these departments.

The idea of setting up a separate department to handle domestic matters was put forward on numerous occasions. It wasn't...

"The federal government's interest in housing conditions can be traced back to the first national investigation of large urban slum areas in 1892. HUD is the successor to a number of federal housing agencies, which gradually evolved following a major effort during the great depression to stimulate housing development. The following narrative highlights major events and legislation tracing the...

"It may be presumed that the proposition relating to internal improvements by roads and canals, which has been several times before Congress, will be taken into consideration again either for the purpose of recommending to the States the adoption of an amendment to the Constitution to vest the necessary power in the General Government or to carry the system into effect on the principle that...

"The first and most frequently asked question is: Is the Federal Government growing so large that our private economy is endangered?

My answer to that is no. The Federal Government has been growing for 175 years. Our population has grown even faster."

In this speech, President Lyndon B. Johnson outlines his vision and goals for "The Great Society," a massive web of government programs and legislation aimed at societal improvement and progress. This speech was given during the University of Michigan's graduation commencement ceremony on May 22, 1964 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

"I sign this bill with considerable hesitation, not because I dissent from the purpose of Congress to create a Department of Labor, but because I think that nine departments are enough for the proper administration of the government, and because I think that no new department ought to be created without a reorganization of all departments in the government and a redistribution of the bureaus...

The National Industrial Recovery Act of June 16, 1933 was a forerunner of the Wagner Act. Signed by President Franklin Roosevelt, the Act was implemented by the National Recovery Administration and the Public Works Administration until it was ruled unconstitutional, in part, in May of 1935.

The original act that created the United States Department of Labor.

"By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, and in order to restore the division of governmental responsibilities between the national government and the States that was intended by the Framers of the Constitution and to ensure that the principles of federalism established by the Framers guide the Executive departments and agencies...

"For the last few years, we've all faced an ever more grave economic situation with dismay and frustration—sort of a truck on the way downhill, as I said the other night, without any brakes. Many of our citizens were resigning themselves to permanent economic hardship. But what you achieved this summer, I think, has put us in a position to get control of the situation. And for the first time...

"It is common to think of the Declaration of Independence as a highly speculative document; but no one can think it so who has read it. It is a strong, rhetorical statement of grievances against the English government. It does indeed open with the assertion that all men are equal and that they have certain inalienable rights, among them the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness....

"This book contains the substance of the course of lectures given in the Old South Meeting-House in Boston in December, 1884, at the Washington University in St. Louis in May, 1885, and in the theatre of the University Club in New York in March, 1886. In its present shape it may serve as a sketch of the political history of the United States from the end of the Revolutionary War to the...

"HAVING shown that no one of the powers transferred to the federal government is unnecessary or improper, the next question to be considered is, whether the whole mass of them will be dangerous to the portion of authority left in the several States."

"One of the most challenging issues Congress faced during the Civil War was how to fund the war effort. Before the war tariffs generated adequate revenue for a relatively small federal budget. When it became clear that the war would not be decided quickly, Congress drafted legislation to generate more revenue. The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, William Pitt Fessenden of Maine,...

"The Department of Transportation (DOT) was established by an act of Congress, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on October 15, 1966. Its first secretary, Alan S. Boyd, took office on January 16, 1967. The department's first official day of operation was April 1, 1967."

"I received with great pleasure your favor of June 4, and am much comforted by the appearance of a change of opinion in your state; for tho' we may obtain, & I believe shall obtain, a majority in the legislature of the United States, attached to the preservation of the Federal constitution according to it's obvious principles, & those on which it was known to be received; attached...

"The idea which you present in your letter of July 30th, of the progress of society from its rudest state to that it has now attained, seems conformable to what may be probably conjectured. Indeed, we have under our eyes tolerable proofs of it."

"This short essay stands as a distillation of Adams's most advanced political thinking. The principles that he would later put forth in his great treatise, A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, are all found in Thoughts: republican government, frequent elections, separation of powers, bicameralism, a unitary executive armed with a...

"Since its creation in 1789, the Department of State has carried out a series of reorganizations and has created new offices and bureaus to deal with new diplomatic challenges."

This report briefly traces the history of the Veterans Affairs government department, while also explaining some of its key duties and responsibilities.

"Dependent on D.C. raises serious concerns about the future of liberty in America and proves beyond a doubt that the growth of dependence on government in the past seventy years has not been accidental, that its creation has been bipartisan, and that it is accelerating. Twight shows how growing federal power--driven by legislation, validated by Supreme Court decisions, and accelerated by...

"At the nation's founding, the fundamental principle underlying American government was liberty, and the nation's new government was designed to protect the rights of individuals. The American founders intended to design a government that would protect the rights of its citizens, and at that time the most serious threat to people's rights was government. Thus, the...

"A sharply critical new look at Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency reveals government policies that hindered economic recovery from the Great Depression -- and are still hurting America today.

In this shocking and groundbreaking new book, economic historian Burton W. Folsom exposes the idyllic legend of Franklin D. Roosevelt as a myth of epic proportions. With questionable moral...

"When Congress endorsed massive aid to schools in 1965, the idea that the federal government had any responsibility for public education was controversial. Twenty years later, not only had that controversy dissipated, Washington's role in...

"I have been researching and writing the material for this online resource for the last four years. I have been motivated primarily by my increasing frustration with the attacks on government being waged by those on the political right. The criticisms of government offered by these conservatives are often at odds with much of what we know about government through research. Moreover, I have...

"With the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, Congress created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)...

"The mission of the nonpartisan Center For Small Government is to make government small by advancing specific proposals to dramatically reduce the size of Big Government at all levels — federal, state, and local.

We aim to dismantle, reduce, and remove unnecessary, wasteful, or harmful Big Government policies and programs. We aim to shrink overall government spending, taxes, authority,...

The website of the USDA, the federal department created in 1862 by President Lincoln to oversee the nation's agricultural activities.

"ED was created in 1980 by combining offices from several federal agencies. ED's 4,400 employees and $68 billion budget are dedicated to:

• Establishing policies on federal financial aid for education, and distributing as well as monitoring those funds.
• Collecting data on America's schools and disseminating research.
• Focusing national attention on key educational...

"The Department of Homeland Security has a vital mission: to secure the nation from the many threats we face. This requires the dedication of more than 240,000 employees in jobs that range from aviation and border security to emergency response, from cybersecurity analyst to chemical facility inspector. Our duties are wide-ranging, but our goal is clear - keeping America safe."

"The U.S. Department of the Interior protects America's natural resources and heritage, honors our cultures and tribal communities, and supplies the energy to power our future."

"The U.S. Department of Commerce promotes job creation, economic growth, sustainable development and improved standards of living for all Americans by working in partnership with businesses, universities, communities and our nation's workers. The department touches the daily lives of the American people in many ways, with a wide range of responsibilities in the areas of trade, economic...

Established in 1913, the U.S. Department of Labor seeks "To foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights."

The official website of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.