What really is the federal government's responsibility?

Originally posted at Right Truth

We've talked before about the role of government, personal responsibility, and the nanny state. Karl at Learning Straight Up has a nice article, "The role of Government is to protect." Beyond securing our borders and protecting us from our enemies, the role of the Federal Government should be very small. Isn't that what true Conservatives believe?

But the most insidious element of protection is the nanny state "protect you from yourself" mentality, and our Federal, State and even City and County Governments are masters of it. [snip]

I liked it better when you grew up, you became an adult and you had to take responsibility for yourself. (more)

Once we get past the "protect" role of government, that's where the debate begins. What should be the responsibility of the federal government, the States, local communities and personal responsibility of individual citizens?

Our government doesn't seem to be controlling the illegals working inside the United States, even at our military bases. “12 illegal immigrants found working at Fort Bliss”, reports PoliPundit, who says:

OOPS! [snip] Only 19,999,988 to go!

Terrorists Have Been Arrested at Texas Border (Stormwarnings Counterterrorism Blog)

Texas Director of Homeland Security, Steve McCraw revealed Wednesday that 6 yrs. after Sept. 11th, people have connected to Hezbollah, Hamas and al Qaeda have been arrested at the Texas border. What will it take to strengthen our border security? Maybe a Texan in the White House cares about border security? Wait! GWB is a Texan...does he care?

Michael Cutler on Counterterrorism Blog alerted me to this when I finally got to read his post from yesterday afternoon:

I want you to take a moment to let the significance of all of this sink in. Our nation is at war with terrorists who have already killed thousands of innocent victims within our nation's borders. The commonly quoted number of victims is approximately 3,000. In point of fact I fear that the ultimate toll will actually be a multiple of that number when you factor in all of the people who are dying of lung diseases and other ailments associated with the various highly toxic pollutants that were released when the buildings at the World Trade Center complex collapsed. And now we see how the open borders of the United States facilitate the entry of terrorists, at a time when "We the People" are being inconvenienced, and our freedoms and expectations of privacy are being significantly reduced. (read it all here)

Maybe the federal government is too busy watching what we eat, drink, do, think, ... to secure the borders. What do YOU think the role of the federal government should be?

United States President George W. Bush is making an effort to find out what the average American is thinking. He met with BLOGGERS this week. It's a nice move, but I don't expect it to change Bush's mind on anything.Infidels are Cool has the list of bloggers, go check it out. My invitation must have gotten lost in the mail, ha. We saw this week how when bloggers apply heat to a subject, we get progress, like the MoveOn.org ad in the NYT.