Does Government Deserve Our Confidence?

Many of the arguments for any government program - including health care reform - assume that people either should, or do, trust the government.

I am a little bit cynical about trusting government. Let me pose a few questions about trust.

1. Do you trust your neighbors?

2. Do you trust your neighbors enough to leave your doors unlocked and your windows open?

3. Do you trust your government?

4. Do you trust your government enough to give them a blank check and the power to cash it at any time?

5. Do you believe elected officials have your best interests at heart?

6. Do you believe elected officials can be influenced by money - either campaign donations or offers of employment once they leave office?

My point isn't that you shouldn't trust anyone. Instead, the point is that there are limits to trust. That is why our governing document is the Constitution. It sets limits on what powers government has, and also protects our individual rights, as well as the rights of the individual states we live in.

Thomas Jefferson, in the Kentucky Resolution of 1798 stated the case eloquently when he wrote, "In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."