Malcolm Wallop: “one of the things about budget deficits that ought to concern Americans is that it is the tool by which Government can…”

“one of the things about budget deficits that ought to concern Americans is that it is the tool by which Government can excessively control the lives of Americans. With Congress inattentive and uncaring about the size of the budget deficit, we find that we end up funding an increasingly arrogant bureaucracy which stretches its influence over the daily lives of Americans in untold, unnumbered, and unimaginable ways. The loss of freedoms that Americans sense can be directly attributed to the size of the Federal budget deficit. If Congress ever got to the point where we actually accounted for everything we spent, we would then have to prioritize. And once we started to prioritize, those agencies of Government that are the most offensive, the most invasive of American privacy, would clearly come under our purview. We discuss the deficit in such abstract terms that it is almost impossible to understand fully what impact the deficit has on the lives of Americans. As I travel this country, and as I travel my home State of Wyoming, I find an increasing number of Americans terrified of their Government, actively trying to serve it instead of expecting it to serve them, and actively trying to stay out of sight lest it should take notice.”