In the early ‘90’s a friend of mine who was at the time a federal law enforcement officer told me the federal bureaucracy was out of control. He further said that the elected and appointed officials are considered by the career “bureaucrats” as simply a small fly in the ointment.
The federal bureaucracy is filled with people who have nothing to gain by “smaller government”.
The example that infuriates me most is in immigration. For many years, regardless of what party is in the White House, immigration has favored people who they thought would vote democratic. Let thousands of “ignorants” into the country and make it very difficult for intelligent well educated people who might vote conservative has been the standard procedure.
Not since Ronald Reagan has any leading Republican candidate even spoke of shutting down a bureaucracy. Ronald was betrayed by Bill Bennett in his attempt to shut down the dept of education, James Watt resigned when the media attack dogs were loosed on him and the GOP stood by and snickered. The last real successful attempt was spearheaded by Howard Phillips during the Nixon administration, but Phillips resigned when Nixon reneged on his promise to veto spending on the “great society”. The GOP has been and continues to fail backing up their small government rhetoric. At the first offer of personal power, they cowardly become beltway insiders and cast off their conservative ideals in order to become part of the ruling class of career legislators.