Why Government is Like a Fake Muscle Car

July 19, 2025 - The 1970s were the era of the fake muscle car. Manufacturers were mandated to reach draconian fuel economy standards to cope with “an existential oil crisis”. So car companies kept their muscle car names, but emaciated their performance to meet the new government standards.

A “restrictor” and a “governor” are engine parts designed to limit the engine itself. Their sole purpose is to keep that engine from working too hard...to hold it back, to keep it within certain safe limits.

Government bureaucrats are like “governors”. Their purpose is to slow things down and play it safe. They don’t want any changes and they won’t work too hard in service to the bloated vehicle of government.

Bureaucrats are the “restrictors” in the engine of government. They make government slow, inefficient and unresponsive to what people actually want.

Government employees have learned to protect and maintain THEMSELVES. It’s an inevitable and ingenious design. They’ll run forever if you let them. And performance will always suffer.

Unlike the response to unrealistic fuel economy standards of the 1970s, if we want a serious upgrade in the vehicle of government, we don’t need a phony facelift. A complete overhaul is in order.

Rather than restrict the engine of government, why don’t we take some of the load off it and let it breathe? Let’s design it for high performance instead of for avoidance of risk!

For every privately run company, their supercharger is called competition. Their fuel is known as profit. And the air vital for efficient combustion comes from actually TRYING to SATISFY their customers.

Private businesses survive and thrive based on performance, not by cleverly protecting their own existence and pretending to be something they’re not.

It’s time to overhaul our bloated government and incentivize peak performance over sluggish survival.