The primary purpose of government is to protect citizens from both foreign and domestic threats and to ensure “regular” inter-state trade. The government’s powers should be limited to powers specifically stated in the Constitution. Congress should make no new laws and should eliminate all statutes, regulations, departments, programs, organizations, and commissions not clearly and specifically enumerated in the US Constitution. Limited government calls for no new stimulus spending, taxpayer-funded bailouts or government ownership of private enterprises.
In Texas
To quote the TEA Party Caucus Advisory Committee’s legislative priorities, “Now is the time to focus on the why and how tax dollars are spent by our state government. Budgeting and public policy should not be based on emotion, tradition, or legal plunder advocated by special interest groups, but rather on limited government principles. Limited government principles, coupled with high ethical standards, advance individual liberty, promote economic freedom, and ensure transparent, high quality, efficient and effective services for taxpayers.”
The TPCAC’s document further declares, and I agree: “The Texas Legislature, the Governor, Lt. Governor, and House Speaker should actively work to balance the state’s budget without employing the past practices of accounting gimmicks, deferrals, and various types of budget trickery. We believe:
- the state budget should be balanced with available revenues;
- state government should be reduced to its core constitutional functions* by eliminating any departments, agencies, commissions, programs, or funds that fall outside those core functions, and in turn, the
- resulting savings should be redirected to core constitutional functions where more funding is justified utilizing a zero-based budgeting process.”
*The core constitutional functions of Texas state government are public education; transportation; the justice system of criminal and civil courts, law enforcement, and corrections (state prisons); management of natural resources; state emergency services; and the administration of HHS-Medicaid services.