How do we get back to smaller government?

The US seems to somehow manage to get rather poor value for money from its government spending: eg. it spends a similar % of GDP on health as the UK and some EU countries and yet falls vastly short of the universal coverage they achieve.

My guess is that this is a consequence of the debate over what particular things are the concern of government not yet being settled. This results in a more complicated threshold determining who gets government help and who doesn’t compared to countries where it is rather more “settled” that a certain provision or service is squarely the domain of government. And what does a more complicated threshold require more of? Why, bureaucrats, of course!

If my suspicion were true, the irony would be delicious: that the desire to save money by restricting certain government programs did not save any money since the jobs given over to providing a given service had to be replaced by jobs given over to deciding who got that service and who didn’t!

Bureaucracy equates to indispensability. As L. Sprague de Camp one wrote, “You cannot just gather together a hundred thousand men and tell them, ‘Conquer the infidels from Spain to Samarkand!’ or ‘Build the Atcheson, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad!’ They would ‘Run in circles, scream, and shout.’” No really large organization of any kind can function effectively without multiple layers of specialized managers.

It’s funny, but it seems like quite a few people here think there is no government waste and that all spending is beneficial to somebody.
Years ago I was watching some news show, I forget which, 20/20, 60 Minutes, one of those type shows, and they were talking about a book which listed government waste. One of the things that the (Federal I believe) government spent money on, was a scientist who studied the flow rate of ketchup (no, serious, he did). There are also government costs no associated with bureaucracies, like pay for elevator operators.
Of course spending on minor things like these probably don’t add up to very much, but it’s a good place to start.

Also, as an aside, although completely and totally impossible, I wonder how small our (the US) government would be if it only did its constitutional duties. (And no, I’m not advocating this, I’m just curious is all.)

Why did the scientist study the flowrate of ketchup? Possibly a boondoggle, possibly not. I am sure there is inherent government waste, which should be eliminated. I am not 100% certain that I can identify it from afar. Pork is much easier to point at and eliminating it would be great/should be simple. Just requires far more principaled and brave congressfolk then our current lot.

Of course, I don’t want my government bureaucracy getting too efficient. I don’t want the local dmv putting a boot on my car in my driveway because my state safety inspection is one day overdue. And to hear people gripe about the possible use of automated toll systems (ez pass or whatever) to ticket people for speeding as though going 90 on the thruway were their constitutionally guaranteed right I think I am not alone. (Granted, I want borg-like efficiency in dealing with what I consider serious problems, but that’s the important stuff, naturally)

Tiny army, no navy, defense based on state militias? World’s too different to use a 1789 government as a paradigm. And even then, the exact range of responsibilities and powers possessed by the federal government was hardly explicitly spelled out, though perhaps (diversely) universally understood.