The CupCake Rule

As a follow-on to yesterday's post, it's worth noting that the militarization of local police forces is decried by both the Right and the Left. However, the Left (in a fashion that characterizes much of its thinking) seems unable to connect the militarization of local police to its underlying cause—the inexorable growth in government at the federal level.

George Will comments:

In physics, a unified field theory is an attempt to explain with a single hypothesis the behavior of several fields. Its political corollary is the Cupcake Postulate, which explains everything , from Missouri to Iraq, concerning Americans’ comprehensive withdrawal of confidence from government at all levels and all areas of activity.

Washington’s response to the menace of school bake sales illustrates progressivism’s ratchet: The federal government subsidizes school lunches, so it must control the lunches’ contents, which validates regulation of what it calls “competitive foods,” such as vending machine snacks. Hence the need to close the bake sale loophole, through which sugary cupcakes might sneak: Foods sold at fundraising bake sales must, with some exceptions, conform to federal standards.

What has this to do with police, from Ferguson, Mo., to your home town, toting marksman rifles, fighting knives, grenade launchers and other combat gear? Swollen government has a shriveled brain: By printing and borrowing money, government avoids thinking about its proper scope and actual competence. So it smears mine-resistant armored vehicles and other military marvels across 435 congressional districts because it can .

The "cupcake rule" exists because big government thinks it should. Forget common sense and the appeal of harmless local traditions. School districts have been co-opted by infusions of big government money, printed without regard to debt or spending. Once you're co-opted, the rest is easy.

CNSNews reports:

109,631,000 Americans lived in households that received benefits from one or more federally funded "means-tested programs" — also known as welfare — as of the fourth quarter of 2012, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.

The Census Bureau has not yet reported how many were on welfare in 2013 or the first two quarters of 2014.

But the 109,631,000 living in households taking federal welfare benefits as of the end of 2012, according to the Census Bureau, equaled 35.4 percent of all 309,467,000 people living in the United States at that time.

By comparison, CNSNews notes that there are "103,087,000 full-time year-round workers in the United States (including 16,606,000 full-time year-round government workers)."

As government grows, it becomes more voracious, more intrusive, and more inefficient, causing it to grow more, and demand more (in taxes and regulation). The Democrats seem either unwilling or unable to recognize this phenomenon and reflexively suggest that government provides solutions to every problem. Worse, they and their progressive allies demonize anyone who suggests that debt, uncontrolled spending, and intrusive government policies are a bad thing.

Yesterday, I wrote: "During the presidency of Barack Obama we have been forced to gulp big government from a fire hose. I can only wonder how long it will be before our country drowns." Maybe a better metaphor would be: With intrusive regulations like the 'cupcake rule,' I wonder how long it will be until our country chokes.