ISAAC NEWTON FARRIS JR

Since former President Ronald Reagan declared that “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help”, small government versus big government is the philosophical question constantly debated in both American politics and American governance. Events within the last 30 days should go a long way toward settling the debate.

As far back as the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 which led to the creation of the federal government’s Food and Drug Administration, the 1911 federal government break-up of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company financial monopoly, the 1930’s New Deal economic relief regulation provided by the federal government to American Whites during America’s Great Depression, the big government Federal Housing Administration (FHA) enabling all middle and lower economic class American Whites with a job to buy their first home, the  G.I. Bill providing World War 2 American White veterans with government low-cost mortgages to buy a home, government low-interest loans to start a business or farm, one year of government unemployment compensation, dedicated government payments of tuition and living expenses to attend high school, college, or vocational school, and the big government Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 which funded the construction of a national highway road system connecting the entire contiguous United States, allowing American Whites to drive their own cars to all parts of America.

Big government was not only appreciated by American citizens for the social, economic, and military safety net it provided but was also trusted to always act in American citizens’ best interest until 1964. In 1964 with the passage of the federal Civil Rights Act, was the first time American Whites experienced the federal government flexing its authority in a way that many American Whites felt did not benefit them. According to the Pew Research Center before the new Civil Rights Act in 1964, 77% of American Whites trusted the government to protect them and act in their best interest.

After the Civil Rights Act became law the federal government was legally mandated to use its regulatory authority to force American Whites, when and where necessary, to treat American people of color equally in all aspects of American life, as a result, distrust of the government among American Whites grew each year.

The distrust bottomed out on October 15, 1980, with only 25% of American Whites still trusting the federal government. Less than a month later on November 7, 1980, American Whites’ trust in government almost doubled rising to 40%. November 7th was 4 days after Ronald Reagan won his campaign for President of the United States by telling Americans “government was the problem, not the solution,” which was Reagan’s code language for, I will shut down federal affirmative action programs and stop the federal government from regulating how American Whites must treat non-white people. The Pew Research Center started collecting trust in federal government data in 1958 64 years ago, and its last public trust in government poll was conducted on May 1, 2022.

According to Pew’s data the only time in the last 64 years that public trust in government was higher under the big government political party, Democrats, than the little government political party, Republicans, was 1961-1964 when public trust in government grew from 73% during Republican President Dwight Eisenhower’s 1958 administration to 77% during the early 1960’s administrations of Democrat Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson before the 1964 Civil Rights Act became law. Before 1964 not only was the federal government trusted by Americans to act in their best interest, federal big government was demanded by American Whites to solve the ills of society.

In the early 1900s when businesses were manufacturing and selling misbranded, poisonous, or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors to Americans, American Whites demanded government regulation to stop it. When the 1930s Great Depression left most American Whites broke, homeless, and hungry American Whites demanded New Deal government regulations that provided American Whites with employment, shelter, and food. But after racial discrimination had existed in American society for 188 years, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act produced government regulation that mandated the federal government to force American white people, American white education systems, and American white businesses to treat all American people of color with equal rights, government regulation suddenly became distrustful to Americans.

1964 was the year that a true the government can’t be trusted, and the government is the problem, not the solution movement was born, before that it was in a 188-year gestation period of only American corporations and small businesses decrying government regulations, like labor laws that mandated an 8 hour work day, a 40 hour work week, and overtime pay for any work performed beyond those mandated hours, which interfered with their profit at any cost business tactics.

After the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act forced American Whites to treat American Blacks equally and allow American Blacks equal access to voting, American corporations and small businesses were joined in the Republican Party by 2 new factions of Americans. One is Americans who don’t want the government telling them how they have to treat people who don’t look like they do, worship the same God as they do, or who don’t have the same sexual orientation as they do, and the other faction is conservative Christian Americans who want a limited big government that only regulates and mandates conservative Christian beliefs such as banning abortion procedures in America.

These 3 factions, American businesses, Americans resentful of racial, religious, and gender-equal treatment government regulation, and Americans in favor of Christian religious government regulation formed the movement that created the big lie of both the 20th and 21st century, that big government can’t be trusted and that big government is the problem, not the solution.

The small government movement was born in 1964 but it took flight 16 years later in 1980 when Americans elected Ronald Reagan President. Reagan’s main campaign pitch was big government is the problem, not the solution, and his main campaign promise was that he would reduce the size of government. 42 years after the big lie about government regulation successfully took flight in America, events within the last 30 days demonstrate how big of a lie the big government lie truly is!!!

In 2020 1,547 of the 4,761 residents of East Palestine, Ohio voted for the small government regulation candidate, Donald Trump, while only 641 of the residents voted for the big government regulation candidate Joe Biden. Now a month after 38 cars of a 150-car Norfolk Southern freight train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in East Palestine, with several rail cars containing the hazardous chemicals burning for 2 days, and releasing so much lethal smoke that people who lived within a 1-mile radius had to be evacuated from the area. All 4,761 residents of East Palestine are now pleading for a big government clean-up of the hazardous chemicals from their air, soil, and water, big government economic aid to rebuild the contaminated areas of their city, and future big government regulation to prevent it from happening again.

Former Federal Railroad Administration official Steven Ditmeyer said if the train had been equipped with Electronically Controlled Pneumatic (ECP) brakes it would have mitigated the severity of the accident. In 2017 railway industry lobbyists persuaded the Trump administration to begin a repeal of the regulations requiring the use of such brakes on trains. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy said she believed the accident was “100% preventable”, and after the NTSB completes its investigation it will issue new safety regulations that will prevent future hazardous derailments of this type from happening again. Unfortunately for East Palestine residents, the 2023 East Palestine train derailment is an example of the peril that comes with no or small government regulation.

Last week an example of the salvation that big government regulation can produce was announced. This past August before Democrats lost control of the U.S. House in the 2022 mid-terms they passed and President Joe Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act. Starting last January it allowed Medicare, for the first time, to negotiate the price government would pay for Insulin, and it regulated that the co-pay of Medicare patients for Insulin be capped at $35 a month. Demonstrating how government regulation can positively impact American lives, last week pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly announced it would cap the copay or the out-of-pocket cost for everyone, the health insured and the health uninsured, at $ 35 a month providing financial salvation to the 7 million Americans that require Insulin.

Many speculate that Lilly is doing this to weaken President Biden’s State of the Union challenge to Congress and Senators to legislatively cap the price of Insulin sold by anyone at $ 35 a month. So in this case, both government regulation of how much Medicare will pay for Insulin, and the threat of further government regulation of how much private companies can charge for Insulin, persuaded 1 of the 3 largest manufacturers of Insulin to lower its price with the other 2 manufacturers expected to do the same.

The proverb too much of anything is good for nothing is truth and wisdom combined. But for anyone debating whether big government is a good or bad thing, whether the government can be trusted, or whether big government is the problem or the solution, the East Palestine hazardous chemical train derailment and pharmaceutical titan Eli Lilly lowering the price of Insulin, proves the insanity of the big government lie and confirms the fact that to solve any problem of consequence in American society, at a minimum big government must be a part of the solution.

And at a maximum, as was the case during America’s Covid-19 virus war, which shut everything and everyone down, requiring big government-regulated medical, technical, and financial bailouts for America’s richest people, America’s poorest people, America’s richest corporations, America’s small businesses, and all of America’s state, county, and city governments. Big government and its regulations can sometimes be the total solution and can sometimes be the only solution!!!