In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge spoke to a group of business owners.

Unfortunately, the federal government has strayed far afield from its legitimate business, he told them.

It has trespassed upon fields where there should be no trespass.

If it was trespass then, today it's grand larceny.

By 1930, government spending at all levels, federal, state, and local

was just 12% of America's economic output. By 2020, it was 45%.

And it's not just spending.

The Federal Register, the list of all Federal regulations,

grew from 2,600 pages in 1936 to 90,000 in 2023.

Administration, decade after decade,

the U.S. government just keeps getting bigger.

Why?

Proponents of bigger government say that as America's challenges grow, the only

entity that can meet these challenges is the government.

Are they right?

Let's consider three major areas of spending, education, health care and social welfare.

Education comprises about 14% of all government spending, from 1966 to 2016, adjusted for inflation spending per student

nearly tripled, from $4,700 to almost $14,000.

Has student performance nearly tripled?

Nope.

Math and reading scores have barely budget and SAT performance hasn't improved at all.

On a state by state basis, it's even worse.

...