I found the perfect explanation for politicians’ behavior (actually any human beings behavior in a similar situation) in this little video by Milton Friedman. It explains everything about how people in government behave, and within it is the seed of the solution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RDMdc5r5z8
The solution? Keep government as small as possible and on a tight leash.
The bottom line is this, it’s not that politicians are in general any worse than each one of us, but that we have put them in an environment (Miltons third and fourth types of money) that facilitates that type of behavior. If we’re honest with ourselves, each one of us would admit that we wouldn’t behaves significantly different in the same situation. We want them to behave like angels, but they’re just humans - republicans may be slightly more angelic, but given the temptations, most will fall like the others. It is up to us the people, their bosses and the owners of the money and power that they have, to put them on a much tighter allowance and to watch them like hawks.
In other words, the time for delegating all that power, money and responsibility to politicians and then going to the beach and watching football and reality TV and letting them do as they please is over - or, they’ll continue to have a ball at our expense.
THUS, THE INTELLECTUAL FOUNDATION FOR ADVOCATING A MUCH SMALLER GOVERNMENT IS CONTAINED IN THAT LITTLE VIDEO ABOUT HUMAN NATURE BY FRIEDMAN.
I totally agree.