Yes, one day in the year 2005 the federal government vanished -- and I bet you didn't even know. -- JWH.

U.S. Congressman: “Honey, We Shrunk the U.S. Government -- to Nothing”

by James W. Harris

"Government and the private sector have to coexist, but [Republicans have] shrunk the government, until now it's not there at all."

That stunning quote comes from powerful liberal U.S. Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), in a profile published last weekend in the Boston Globe [Sunday] Magazine.

What? The Republicans have abolished the U.S. government? Hold on. Before you call the missing governments department -- or break out the champagne -- check the U.S. budget. The Republican-controlled Congress has given us record budget increases and the biggest social spending increases since the New Deal. Not to mention a trillion dollar deficit.

So yes, the government is still there. Bigger than ever and growing like kudzu, thanks to the free-spending GOP majority.

Rep. Frank’s outlandish quote follows on the heels of eerily similar -- and equally ludicrous -- remarks by Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), which we wrote about last issue. DeLay said that Republicans have done such a stellar job of slashing federal spending during the past decade that there simply is no place left in the federal budget where further cuts are possible. (The arch-conservative New Hampshire Union-Leader newspaper called that “the lie of the year.”)

So what’s going on here? Why are leading Republican and Democratic politicians alike ballyhooing such an obviously falsehood?

Here’s one guess. The truth is, for all practical purposes, there are little or no differences between the two older parties, especially at the national level. In daily practice, both are the parties of mega-government. Both favor massive government control over the economy and our personal lives. Both favor worldwide U.S. military and political involvement in the internal affairs of other nations. And both tend to view the U.S. Constitution as little more than a museum piece, with some historical significance but little relevance to the day-to-day process of modern government.

These parties are, in practice, essentially two wings of a single party, which might be called the Establishment Party or the Big Government Party. The choice between them is a Hobson’s Choice. Vote for either, and you will most likely get the same Big Government policies, with perhaps some minor variations.

Because of this, the parties must greatly exaggerate the trivial differences between them, or manufacture differences out of the air, in order to attract and keep their base voters. Thus Republicans such as DeLay appeal to conservatives by claiming they are taking a meat cleaver to the federal budget, though the exact opposite is true. And Democrats like Frank similarly prey on the fears of liberals by crying that the Republicans are anti-government anarchists intent on abolishing the State altogether. Such statements are palpably absurd -- any smart schoolchild would laugh at them. Yet too many voters and media apparently lack the savvy of clever public school inmates, and so the politicians get away with it.

The lie that Republicans are dramatically cutting the federal government -- or that they even seriously want to -- enormously benefits both Democrats and Republicans. And so it is repeated, over and over, by both sides. This loud, ludicrous, blatantly phony debate has the great additional benefit of allowing the two older parties to avoid telling the truth about what they are actually doing.

Whatever the reasons, Frank’s and DeLay’s statements are just plain malarkey. The government is still here, and it’s getting bigger and bigger. You'll foot the bill and suffer the consequences. And the absurd charade will go on -- until enough people begin to listen to those few (but growing) voices pointing out that today’s Democratic and Republican emperors are naked as jaybirds.

(Source: “To Be Frank,” Boston Globe [Sunday] Magazine, October 2, 2005: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2005/10/02/to_be_frank/ )

From THE LIBERATOR ONLINE, October 6, 2005 / Vol. 10, No. 18