Apparently, the American public would concur with the founders.

A Gallup poll conducted in September last year shows that most Americans believe the federal government has amassed too much power. From the report:

A 54% majority of Americans say the federal government has too much power, while 39% say it has about the right amount of power and 6% say too little. These figures have generally been stable throughout the Donald Trump and Joe Biden presidential administrations. Since 2005, no less than 50% of Americans have said they believe the federal government is too powerful, with some of those readings reaching 60%.

Another report from the Washington Times shows that Americans’ assessment is on point. Author Haris Alic noted that President Joe Biden “is on track to expand the size and authority of the federal government to levels unseen since the height of former President Obama’s administration.”

The author continued:

Mr. Biden entered office with more than 11 million individuals employed by the federal government in some capacity, according to the liberal Brookings Institution. At the time, there were 2.2 million full-time employees, 1.4 million military personnel, roughly 500,000 Postal Service workers, 5 million governmental contractors and 1.8 million people whose salaries were derived from federal grants.

That number is expected to grow since Mr. Biden and Congress passed big spending programs. The president’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, $1.2 trillion infrastructure package and $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act each included significant money for new governmental contracts and grants.

David Ditch, a budget analyst at the Heritage Foundation, told the Washington Times that the “number of federal employees generally has stayed stable for decades, but the big additions usually happen outside the margins.”

He continued: “When you’re pumping more money into the economy and giving out government contracts or grants, you’re essentially adding to the federal workforce.”

The report explained that the Inflation Reduction Act is setting aside billions for the IRS’ workforce and that the Department of Transportation is adding as many as 700,000 jobs each year.

With no sense of irony, Republican lawmakers have complained about the expansion of the federal government, claiming it is the result of the left seeking to exert more influence on everyday life.

“The Biden administration believes it should be able to control every decision you make,” said Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL).

While Palmer might actually mean what he says, it is abundantly obvious that his colleagues do not. Indeed, the author, like I have many times before, pointed out that President Donald Trump promised to “drain the swamp” when he ran in 2016. But he drastically grew the federal government’s workforce. While Alic is willing to low-key let Trump off the hook by claiming this is “largely because of the coronavirus pandemic,” I am not.

There were nine million federal employees when Trump took office. By the time he left office, the number swelled to 11 million. There is no way the feds needed two freaking million people to deal with COVID.

The fact of the matter is that neither the Democrats nor Republicans want to shrink the size of the government. But only one party is actually honest about it.

Democrats have no problem telling you that the state is the solution to all your problems. The GOP, on the other hand, wants you to believe that they are working hard to reverse the growth of the federal government while they actually do what they can to maintain the status quo. It is not only Trump who is to blame. Republicans in Congress are responsible. Previous Republican administrations are also the culprit.

The question is: When both parties are statist political operations, what options are there for those who actually want to roll back the state?