I am not some anti-government wacko or anything, but sometimes I can't help but think our system of government is functionally flawed.

I mean really. It's broken.

Politics drives everything. It's all about staying in power and getting re-elected.

It's all about stroking your biggest contributors, whether it's corporate interests, trial lawyers, doctors or insurers.

Every bit of legislation that is passed is driven by someone's special interest.

The U.S. tax code. It's an odious, ridiculously complex system of loopholes driven by the special interest lobbies.

Any talk of simplifying - which everybody knows would be a good thing for all parties concerned, including the U.S. Treasury - is met with disdain or outright hostility.

Any incremental step toward legislative sanity gets shouted or voted down.

It's getting a little hard to take.

I used to consider myself a conservative. Conservatives used to be able to identify with the Republican party. But based on what I am seeing in Washington, where Republicans are running the show with majorities in the House and the Senate and a Republican in the White House, I don't really know what I am anymore.

If the Republicans in Washington are calling themselves conservatives, count me out.

You see, I consider myself one of those Goldwater-type conservatives. He didn't want the government making people jump through hoops - even if he agreed with the particular hoop.

I see the federal government's role as limited.

There are certain issues where the federal government has to be involved.

Things like civil rights, defense, transportation and the environment.

Let's face it. Absent a federal government, women and blacks probably wouldn't be voting in some states even today.

Which, I suppose, is why it didn't really bother me too much to see the federal government get involved in the Terri Schiavo thing.

To me, that was a rights case. Seems without a clear indication from the Schiavo, it would be imprudent - if not a violation of her right to life, liberty and the pursuit of, well, food - to starve her to death by virtue of heresay and second-hand testimony.

And I fully understand the need for the rule of law. But does that mean the judicial system is infallible? Can't judges ever get it wrong? And if they do, does that mean we just throw up our hands and say, "Oh well. Too bad. Guess we blew it on that one?"

But beyond things like civil rights, defense, transportation and the environment, I think the founders had it right with the 10th Amendment.

That's the one that says, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

But our government is pretty far-flung from that idea, isn't it?

And I think that's too bad.

Government today takes its cue from the Blue Collar Comedy Club's Larry the Cable Guy.

Everybody - I mean everybody on both sides of the aisle - wants to "Git-R-Done."

Generally, Democrats want to Git-R-Done on economic issues like minimum wage, health care and welfare.

Republicans, on the other hand want to Git-R-Done on social issues like gay marriage and abortion.

The thing is, regardless of your stance on any of those issues, Congress winds up stuffing more and more government down our throats.

And frankly, we simply can't afford it anymore.

Conservatives like to say they want smaller government. That's a joke.

Look at the W years.

Heck, we got us a prescription drug benefit that threatens to bankrupt Medicaid and Medicare.

We got No Child Left Behind.

We got the enormous and all-encompassing Homeland Security Department.

We got the ever-invasive USA PATRIOT Act.

And the worst part of it is, despite a punitive federal income tax bite and healthy FICA withholdings, we're not even coming close to paying the bills.

We've got huge deficits.

What are our congressmen thinking? How can something so obviously defective go apparently unnoticed by our "leaders"?

They blather on endlessly about how they're going to help us. But they don't want to help us. They want to remain in office. They want to remain in power. They (depending on who's in power) want to retain the majority so they can appoint judges that will do their bidding.

And as long as that's the way they do business, little will change.

Perhaps we need to look at the whole system differently. Maybe becoming a politician should not be voluntary.

I mean, if you really want to be a politician, you should be barred from running for office.

Going to Congress should be like jury duty. You get a notice in the mail. "Oh, damn, not Congress!"

Then, you'd go in there and do a good job for a single term and get out.

OK, that'll never happen, so what about campaign finance?

Let's change it so that you can accept all the money you want, as long as it comes from people living in your district or corporations headquartered in your district.

There ya go.

No more influence peddling and we keep intact your constitutional right to fritter away your money on politics.

Under circumstance like those, Congress might actually enact some legislation with the will of the people in mind - instead of the will of the special interests.

But that'll never happen either because the one's who make the laws profit most from leaving the laws alone.

I realize this sounds a little negative, but something has got to give.

This is a zero sum game we're playing. As government expands and takes more and more workers out of the private sector, there are fewer of us paying the bills.

I don't know how much more government we can afford. [[In-content Ad]]