June 16, 2012 11:37AM 

# Big Government at Work 

By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) 

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As President Obama devotes his [weekly radio address](http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/06/15/weekly-address-ending-stalemate-washington) to “plenty of big ideas” on how to expand the size, scope, and power of government in a putative effort to get the economy going again, Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum [reminds](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/euro-2012-olympics-are-expensive-ways-to-boost-europes-mood/2012/06/13/gJQA3uEBaV_story.html) us of the congenital inefficiency of government:

> In 2002, the British government estimated the cost of hosting the Olympic Games at $2.8 billion. Ten years later, the price has passed $15 billion and is still rising. When everything is added up — lost business, as many as 13,500 [British soldiers patrolling the streets of London](http://www.army.mod.uk/news/23762.aspx) (more than are in Afghanistan) — the expenses may come to [$38 billion](http://www.city-journal.org/2012/eon0530drhs.html).

The scandal, of course, is that this is no scandal. It’s just standard operating procedure in government. Everyone knows that government programs — from [stadiums](https://www.cato.org/surprise-stadium-predictions-flawed/) to [Medicare](http://blog.heritage.org/2009/08/04/health-care-reform-cost-estimates-what-is-the-track-record/) to [reconstruction projects](https://www.cato.org/waste-fraud-and-stimulus/) — will likely suffer massive [cost overruns](https://www.cato.org/waste-fraud-and-stimulus/). The question is why we keep believing the promises.

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) 

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