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Folks can debate as to whether we need a larger, more complex federal government in these times. However, the main problem I see is that our current larger, more complex federal government has become that way not by amending the Constitution and giving itself more powers through the consent of the states and the governed, but by simply seizing the powers, thereby eroding any checks and balances that a proper, Constitutional expansion of government could entail. Social Security is a prime example - one can argue that it is beneficial to society to create some kind of safety net for the elderly - but since the government simply established Social Security and then the SCOTUS was cowed by Roosevelt's court-packing scheme into finding Social Security consitutional under the General Welfare Clause, we now have a fraudulent, Ponzi-scheme of a federal retirement system instead of a system that meets some level of standards required for private retirement systems. Other examples abound of the dangers of expansion of federal power without amending the Constitution, and that is the key problem - not necessarily that fact that the federal government has grown, but the manner in which it has grown.