I’m just going to assume that power is a zero sum game. Therefore the chart below shows how power has become more centralized and less local. Note that the Federal power grab is completely bi-partisan.

Image from the WSJ article The Obama Revolution.

This is not going to end well.

House Approves $410 Billion ‘Omnibus’ Spending Bill

The legislation also includes almost $8 billion for 8,500 congressional pet projects known as earmarks, according to the Washington-based Taxpayers for Common Sense. Among the earmarks are $1.8 million for swine odor and manure management research in Iowa, $2 million to promote astronomy in Hawaii and $381,000 for music programs at New York City’s Lincoln Center.

Obama Budget Would Create $634 Billion Health-Care Fund

President Obama intends to release a budget tomorrow that creates a 10-year, $634 billion “reserve fund” to partially pay for a vast expansion of the U.S. health care system, an overhaul that many experts project will cost as much as $1 trillion over the next decade.

As they say, money equals power. It’s always a good idea to grant the Federal Government more power: You know, ’cause they are always so responsive to your local needs. Didn’t our founding fathers have this figured out so many years ago?

Oh, when this budget deficit bubble finally bursts (seemingly now sooner rather than later), it’s really not going to be pretty.

Related to the post below, here’s a paper entitled “Climate Science: Is it currently designed to answer questions?” Here are some interesting quotes from the paper…

Science has traditionally been held to involve the creative opposition of theory and observation wherein each tests the other in such a manner as to converge on a better understanding of the natural world.
…
Until the post World War II period, little in the way of structure existed for the formal support of science by government (at least in the US which is where my own observations are most relevant).
…
The creation of the government bureaucracy, and the increasing body of regulations accompanying government funding, called, in turn, for a massive increase in the administrative staff at universities and research centers. The support for this staff comes from the overhead on government grants, and, in turn, produces an active pressure for the solicitation of more and larger grant.

One result of the above appears to have been the deemphasis of theory because of its intrinsic difficulty and small scale, the encouragement of simulation instead (with its call for large capital investment in computation), and the encouragement of large programs unconstrained by specific goals. In brief, we have the new paradigm where simulation and programs have replaced theory and observation, where government largely determines the nature of scientific activity, and where the primary role of professional societies is the lobbying of the government for special advantage.
…
When an issue becomes a vital part of a political agenda, as is the case with climate, then the politically desired position becomes a goal rather than a consequence of scientific research.

Note: Quotes not taken sequentially to aid in flow, and I left out references to footnotes. Read the whole paper for the details.

Ike’s second (and much less well known) warning in his farewell address from January 17, 1961:

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central, it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite. The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system – ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

Could Ike possibly have been talking about this: “E.P.A. Expected to Regulate Carbon Dioxide“?

H/T to Watt’s Up With That’s post Ike’s second warning, hint: it is not the “military-industrial complex” for inspiring this post.

if anyone believes she is making sense. Oh, too late.

H/T to Free Advice.