[High Praise! to Ratlands]
The damage that we should fear isn’t the actual programs, it’s that the bureaucratic infrastructure created for the programs will never go away. It’s simply a libertarian pipe-dream to imagine passing legislation eliminating the the IRS or the EPA (or HHS, or the Dept. of Education); it may be a satisfying fantasy, but it’s a fantasy none the less.
In reality, bureaucracies never go away. They simply expand and look for more stuff to do. More of your business to mind. More power to control your life, even if the rationale for their involvement is laughable, at best. That’s why the IRS is about to become intimately involved in your health care.
The paradox of metastasizing government overreach is this:
Resistance Is Futile.
But armed resistance is not.
In reality, bureaucracies never go away, they just financially collapse. But usually it’s your enemies who try and make it collapse, not your ‘leaders’.