size of government

[http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert (Robert)]

 > The founders of the US attempted to do that by restricting and limiting
 > the federal government.

This isn't quite true.  There were two factions: one which preferred a
restricted and state-based government (Jefferson et al.) and another which
preferred a much more centralized and consolidated government (Hamilton et
al.).  So, I think these tensions were there right from the beginning.

Hamilton ultimately did "win" in these arguments by consolidating power in
the federal government.  And, the government has grown continuously since
then.  It really took a big leap in size under FDR and World War II.  It
has grown slightly since FDR and WW2, and there have been a lot of
attempts to shrink it, but, for the most part, these attempts have been
failures.  Getting involved in many wars and expanding social programs
have been the primary source of spurts of growth, but touching either
military spending or social programs have been verboten to most
politicians.

It's hard to imagine the federal government shrinking down to the size it
was in 1789 before Hamilton got his way, in any case.