Daniel Henninger, in his Wall Street Journal opinion article, Obama’s Colossal Politics, correctly and succinctly identifies two causes of runaway government.
First, there’s the bad cost-benefit analysis, that overplays the benefits and doesn’t consider the costs:
”If there’s just one life that can be saved,” Mr. Obama said Monday in Minnesota, using standard Washington risk-benefit analysis, “then we have an obligation to try it.”
Then there’s this:
When serious scientists try to solve a problem, they ask, What works? When Washington takes on a problem, it says, Why not?
Why not? We must look like we’re trying.
