Privatized Government Is Not A Smaller Government

One of the key principles of the Republican Party is a smaller government. Republican strategist, Grover Norquist has even said...

I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.

Over the past 6 years in Washington, the Republcian leadership has been privatizing government in the attempt to make it smaller. However, a privatized government is not a smaller government. It is just a government that gives your tax dollars to companies to provide poorer quality services.

All you have to do is look at the mess of a privatized FEMA during Hurricane Katrina, the safety of drinking water for troops in Iraq, and most recently the poor care of injured troops at Walter Reed.

I agree that it is important to cut wasteful spending, duplicate programs, and pork barrel projects. However, people forget that government is by the people, for the people, meaning that government is meant to provide services that people need. Services that help people. Some of these services aren't able to be successfully done by private business.

We shouldn't complain that our money is being spent, we should demand that our money is being spent well. We shouldn't be giving our tax dollars away for these services to be done by the lowest bidder. Some of these services are too important to be done by the lowest bidder. A smaller government isn't the answer, the answer is a quality government that serves the people and one that we can be proud of.