Size is a killer. (No, this isn’t about Cialis.) You remember a great company that for years attracted the best people, performed the best work, created the best products and delivered solid profits. That was before the company’s decision to dominate the market through dramatic expansion aimed at driving competitors into the dust. With this explosive growth came a top heavy bureaucracy, a commodity mentality and eventual disintegration. You also remember a dozen manufacturing companies staffed by craftsman who made superb products that became national brands. Those brands competed with each other, spawning retail growth, giving consumers excellent choices and returning solid profits. That was before a decision to roll up the companies into one massive, mediocre enchilada. Lost jobs, lost factories, lost quality, lost brands. Sayonara, baby. On an epic level, the lust for size and power resides in all government, especially the Federal Government. Government is like a supernatural leech that attaches itself to everything. The 1958 Sci-fi movie is today’s reality. The Federal Blob swells larger and larger. The larger it gets, the more ravenous it becomes, engulfing everything and everyone. But unlike private business, this worthless Blob will not die, despite the incompetence. Despite the bumbling, bungling, botching and stumbling. The Federal Blob is on permanent life support. And, you, my friend, are that support — or should you say — slave. There are 19 primary federal regulatory agencies. More than 50 agencies have a hand in federal regulatory policy. Together, these agencies enforce at least 150,000 pages of rules. Even a simpleton can understand the drill. Congress creates an agency. The Department of Education is a good example. The job of the agency is to regulate. People are hired as regulators. Today, there are over 5000 of these education regulators. These people make salaries by creating regulations and enforcing regulations. That means the department has to grow to support higher salaries; therefore, to grow and earn more income, the regulators desperately need to concoct new regulations. There’s absolutely no point in being a regulator unless you produce new regulations. At last report, the Department of Education is attempting to make ends meet with a $75,000,000,000+ budget.* Poor babies. Meanwhile, the other 18 agencies are hustling to grow their share of the regulatory pie. In fact, if The Blob’s regulatory operation were a business, it would rank among the 50 largest in revenues and third largest in number of employees. The regulators outnumber the people working for McDonald’s, Ford, Disney and Boeing combined. Yes , Matilda, the federal regulatory business is booming. Combined budgets are up 16% since 2008. Meanwhile, employment is up 13% (by 281,000) while private-sector jobs shrank by 5.6%. So it’s no surprise that regulatory production is way up, measured by the thousands of new rules The Federal Blob churns out. Evidently, Congress and enough brain-dead American people believe all of us need regulators to tell us how to run our businesses, what to eat, what not to eat, what light bulbs to use, what to teach our children, what doctors to see — because, truth be known, you’re too stupid to live successfully without this guidance. The Blob is swelling at a record rate and shows no sign of going on a diet. Where does that leave you? Satisfied? Supportive? Sensitive? How about — suffocated?

* The Department of Education is by far the Blob’s smallest cabinet-level department.