Are elected folks as committed to smaller, cheaper government as we are?

The evidence out there suggests a big, fat NO.

In Raleigh, legislative Republicans are rolling out a North Carolina version of Elon Musk‘s DOGE effort to root out and eliminate fraud, waste and abuse in government.  It’s funny — Republicans have been in charge in Raleigh for fifteen years. Legislators are sent to Raleigh every two years with a mandate to root out bureaucratic sleaze and waste. We’ve had an elected auditor since FOREVER.

Yet, the government has been growing and growing and growing with no end in sight since the big GOP takeover.  (*That lobbyist cash is too doggone tough to pass up.*)

Money gets cut from one budget line item and pops up in others later down the road. If the annual routine is to up a program’s budget by ten percent — and it only goes up eight percent — that is called a cut. *But you’re still spending more money.*

Some point out that we’ve seen stuff like this before:

[…] An earlier North Carolina watchdog task force — the nonpartisan Program Evaluation Division — exposed millions in wasteful and fraudulent spending over a 15-year period before Senate President Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore dissolved it in 2021. Former PED executive director John Turcotte told NC Health News he believed legislative leadership eliminated the program because they did not have direct control over the watchdog agency. […]

Everyone has recently  seen how popular Elon & co.’s work has been with the *little people* who pay for the spending orgies in our capital cities. Jump on that ol’ bandwagon! 

In DC, congress-critters are talking tough about DOGE’s findings.  But for those findings to really make a difference, they need to be codified into law.  Let’s see WHAT if ANYTHING our elected representatives in DC have been doing in response to DOGE’s work:

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That’s right.  We’re not passing bills on Capitol Hill. We’re hearing cheerleading for DOGE — but seeing little action to back that work up.

Granted, the GOP does have slim majorities.  Granted, we do send weak Republicans like Thom Tillis and Greg Murphy and David Rouzer to Washington.  (*Despite this slim majority, Richard Hudson was reelected to head the House campaign team for 2026.*)

We can’t get universal agreement within a GOP caucus in Raleigh or DC on the concepts of shrinking the government and cutting its costs. What is the glue holding this party together, other than access to a lot of cash and raw power?  

Virginia Foxx is chairman of the House Rules Committee, which works hand-in-hand with the speaker to determine what bills go to the floor.  You’d think a period of revolutionary change like this would make that committee a very busy place.  Apparently, it hasn’t. (*You can hear a lot of crickets.*)

In Ancient Rome, politicians put on spectacular shows in the Colosseum to take regular folks’ minds off of the troubles of everyday life — like the coming collapse of the Empire.

‘Bread & Circuses’ is what the strategy was labeled. Is all of this excitement and PR about DOGE little more than a 2025 version of ‘Bread & Circuses’?

For the sake of our country, I hope not.