Bring back bigger government

In 1981, Ronald Reagan struck a chord with the immortal words, “…government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” The quote became a mantra among free-market conservatives (especially those who stood to gain from deregulation), but it also appealed to Americans' entrepreneurial spirit, as seen in the 1984 movie Ghostbusters. [Source: Greatest Movie Ever About Republican Economic Policy]

In time, "small government" grew to mean tax cuts. Twenty years after Reagan's inaugeral address, Americans for Tax Reform founder Grover Norquist echoed Reagan with his own quip, “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.” [Source] He got what he wanted -- the U.S. government has run a budget deficit for the past 20 years straight.

Yet conservatives have long ignored the crucial phrase that the ellipses replaced: “In this present crisis….” [Source] It is a telling omission. Rather than recognize the temporality of stagflation, conservatives have continued to push the "small government" narrative beyond all usefulness.

Today, the IRS is so small that it can't properly do its job. “In the last eight years, there has been a 72 percent drop in the number of audits of those making more than $1 million. In all, 98 percent of those making more than $1 million did not face an audit last year.” [Source]

Plus, more corporations are also escaping notice. “There has also been a 55 percent drop in the number of audits of America's largest corporations. In 2012, almost all corporate giants were audited. In 2020, however, almost two thirds of those corporations were not subjected to audits.”

Under the aegis of "small government," we are being penny-wise and pound-foolish. "In 2012, audits of wealthy individuals and large corporations recovered roughly $29 billion of revenue. Eight years later, the far fewer audits recovered less than $7 billion.” The agency's ineffectiveness can be directly attributed to its personnel authorizations.

"In 2020, the agency employed just 8.350 revenue agents. Eight years earlier, there were 14,749." [Source]

Ronald’s Reagan’s “present crisis” of 1981 is long over. If anything, the pendulum has swung too long in the other direction, and we are now failing to enforce the law.

We need to bring back big government in at least one respect -- to enforce law and order on those most able to do their part.