No one knows what might have happened if Reagan had had a Republican congress to work with, but the government wasn't any smaller after his eight years either. I remember when it seemed feasible that entire departments would be allowed to wither away. Those were the days.

Wealth redistribution is now so firmly implanted in the nature of the Federal government that I don't think anybody will have any success in actually ramping it back, and most of government is now devoted to this.

Much is made of how Clinton was "frugal," but if the Clinton health care proposal had actually passed, the cost of government would have swollen like a dead cow in a Texas high noon, so I don't think any Clinton principles of small government were involved.

What needs to be done is for the Congress, particularly the Republican House, to start putting the brakes on.