The Founding Fathers thought long and hard about the proper role of government in our lives, and they set forth their thoughts in a document that explicitly numerates the powers of the federal government. To restore truly limited government, therefore, we must do more than define issues as political or budgetary. We must go to the heart of the matter and raise the underlying constitutional questions. In a word, we must ask the most fundamental question of all: Does the government have the authority, the constitutional authority, to do what it is doing?

More on Limited Government

Commentary

Graduates, Your Ambition Is the Problem

By Roger Pilon. The Wall Street Journal. May 8, 2013.

Growing Government and Slowing Growth — Obama’s Contradiction

By Michael D. Tanner. Harvard Economics Review. May 8, 2013.

Obama’s ‘War on Cynicism’

By Gene Healy. DC Examiner. May 7, 2013.

Cato Studies

Libertarian Roots of the Tea Party

By David Kirby and Emily McClintock Ekins. Policy Analysis No. 705. August 6, 2012.

The Independent Payment Advisory Board: PPACA’s Anti-Constitutional and Authoritarian Super-Legislature

By Diane Cohen and Michael F. Cannon. Policy Analysis No. 700. June 14, 2012.

Herbert Hoover: Father of the New Deal

By Steven Horwitz. Briefing Paper No. 122. September 29, 2011.

Articles

The Case Against the Fiscal Stimulus

Jeffrey A. Miron. Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. Vol. 33. No. 2. Spring 2010.

Why Freedom Matters

James A. Dorn. Freeman. July, 2005.

Public Filings

Addressing Transparency in the Federal Bureaucracy: Moving toward a More Open Government

By Jim Harper. Testimony. March 13, 2013.

City of Arlington v. FCC

By Ilya Shapiro, Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, Trevor Burrus & Mac Stone. Legal Briefs. November 26, 2012.

PPL Corp. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

By Ilya Shapiro and Matt Gilliam. Legal Briefs. August 10, 2012.

Reviews & Journals

Cato Papers on Public Policy: Second Annual Volume

Policy Report. March/April 2013.

James M. Buchanan, RIP

Policy Report. March/April 2013.

Saving the Soul of Classical Liberalism

James M. Buchanan (1919 - 2013). Policy Report. March/April 2013.

Events

India Grows at Night: A Liberal Case for a Strong State

Featuring Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar and Ian Vásquez. June 11, 2013. Book Forum.

The Problem with Europe’s Austerity Debate

Featuring Ian Vásquez. June 5, 2013. Policy Forum.

Reclaiming Freedom: The Case for Libertarian Ideas in Mainstream Politics

Featuring David Boaz. February 16, 2013. Student Forum.

Downsizing the Federal Government

Airports and Air Traffic Control

By Chris Edwards and Robert W. Poole Jr.. June 2010.

Airports and Air Traffic Control

By Chris Edwards and Robert W. Poole Jr.. June 2010.

Fiscal Federalism

By Chris Edwards. February 2009.