Many factors and to some degree that sure is true, as crazy as it may sound to some. Politicians use government, may that be the intel apparatus, law enforcement, regulations, subsidies, the tax code, government programs to buy votes, appease their campaign donors, and in some cases personally enrich themselves, like Joe Biden, Harry Reid...
Most of the redundancy and growth in government is a patchwork of “good ideas” proposed by politicians wanting to “show action” anytime something goes wrong, i.e. “we’re from the government and we’re here to help.”
DEA: war on drugs, Richard Nixon.
EPA: save the planet, Jimmy Carter
TSA/DHS: war on terror, George Bush
ATF: prohibition, Volstead Act.
Sad thing is, just like the war on drugs has been an abject failure by any empirical and objective measure (since 1969), so has the TSA which has caught ZERO (0) terrorists to date, prohibition and the ATF which of course remained even after this lunacy of a law was abolished...
And both parties are responsible! Only the themes change. For liberals it’s always more government for some social justice cause or the environment, while for conservatives it’s always national security and public safety.
The point is, MOST of government you can literally shut down, get rid of, and people would never know the difference.
If that sounds ridiculous, ask yourself how your life was impacted when the federal government shut down during covid and in some cases as many as 75% of their staff stayed home for as long as 6 months?
How did the airlines and airports operate before a TSA? I will tell you how, faster, cheaper, more convenient and without warrentless searches of my person and affects.
When Trump cut the EPA by near 1/3, forcing them to eliminate over 100 various regulations, what happened? -NOOOOTHING- Except for a liberal MSM was up in arms, it didn’t matter one damn bit: https://www.propublica.org/article/as-trump-slashes-epa-worry-over-the-fate-of-an-agency-doing-similar-work
I don’t disagree with anything you said. In fact, I thought it was a great post.
There is do gooderism at play for sure, but another factor in DC is the strong tendency to throw money at ‘problems’; some might argue its a gut reaction by congress to every issue. They perceive it as a display of action. But we shouldn’t lose sight of the self-serving nature of this either. The Swamp never saw a program it didn’t like. Expansion of government opens up all kinds of opportunities for office holders to reward their friends and themselves, and of course it opens up a whole new world for the bureaucrats and special interests in DC. Naturally they are constant instigators of expansion.
Spending money is good for business in DC. Look at how rich the politicos get while they’re in office and how comfortable the technocrats are. Life is very good in DC for them.