Power and Abosolute Power – What has happened to the U.S. Congress

Newt Gingrich recently repeated the well known phrase on power and absolute power but he put it in the context of what has been happening to the U. S. Congress, “Big government tends to corrupt. But government with no party willing to limit its growth is absolutely corrupting.”

He went on to say that the founding fathers were well aware of this power issue and “so they wrote a constitution designed to produce effective, strong, but limited government.”

Todays situation has been enabled by the U.S. Congress since they wrote the laws that allowed this to happen. Mr. Gingrich explains it like this, “Lobbyists attend fund raisers for incumbents, so incumbents can create campaign war chests that convince challengers not to run thus freeing up incumbents to spend more time at Washington fund raisers. And with their reelections on the line and their lobbyists friends to keep happy, House and Senate members find it impossible to say no to special interests. So they keep spending, bloating the government with pet projects and special deals, which in turn attracts more money into lobbying and interest groups. … The simple, but not necessarily, easy way out of the current troubles begins with shrinking the size of the federal government. As long as government is this big, spends this much, and is this powerful, no law or regulation can hold back the tide of corrupting influences.”

He concludes with, “The wisdom of the founders is more relevant today than ever. Big government tends to corrupt and bipartisan big government corrupts absolutely.”

You can listen to his entire commentary via the NPR link below.