Free To Choose: a personal Statement

The Power in Washington
Whenever we visit Washington, D.C., we are impressed all over
again with how much power is concentrated in that city. Walk
the halls of Congress, and the 435 members of the House plus

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the 100 senators are hard to find among their 18,000 employees
—about 65 for each senator and 27 for each member of the
House. In addition, the more than 15,000 registered lobbyists—
often accompanied by secretaries, typists, researchers, or repre-
sentatives of the special interest they represent—walk the same
halls seeking to exercise influence.
And this is but the tip of the iceberg. The federal government
employs close to 3 million civilians (excluding the uniformed
military forces). Over 350,000 are in Washington and the sur-
rounding metropolitan area. Countless others are indirectly em-
ployed through government contracts with nominally private or-
ganizations, or are employed by labor or business organizations
or other special interest groups that maintain their headquarters,
or at least an office, in Washington because it is the seat of gov-
ernment.
Washington is a magnet for lawyers. Many of the country's
largest and most affluent firms are located there. There are said
to be more than 7,000 lawyers in Washington engaged in federal
or regulatory practice alone. Over 160 out-of-town law firms
have Washington offices.'
The power in Washington is not monolithic power in a few
hands, as it is in totalitarian countries like the Soviet Union or
Red China or, closer to home, Cuba. It is fragmented into many
bits and pieces. Every special group around the country tries
to get its hands on whatever bits and pieces it can. The result
is that there is hardly an issue on which government is not on both
sides.
For example, in one massive building in Washington some
government employees are working full-time trying to devise and
i mplement plans to spend our money to discourage us from smok-
ing cigarettes. In another massive building, perhaps miles away
from the first, other employees, equally dedicated, equally hard-
working, are working full-time spending our money to subsidize
farmers to grow tobacco.
In one building the Council on Wage and Price Stability is
working overtime trying to persuade, pressure, hornswoggle busi-
nessmen to hold down prices and workers to restrain their wage
demands. In another building some subordinate agencies in the
Department of Agriculture are administering programs to keep

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FREE TO CHOOSE: A Personal Statement
up, or raise, the prices of sugar, cotton, and numerous other
agricultural products. In still another building officials of the
Department of Labor are making determinations of "prevailing
wages" under the Davis-Bacon Act that are pushing up the wage
rates of construction workers.
Congress set up a Department of Energy employing 20,000
persons to promote the conservation of energy. It also set up an
Environmental Protection Agency employing over 12,000 per-
sons to issue regulations and orders, most of which require the
use of more energy. No doubt, within each agency there are sub-
groups working at cross-purposes.
The situation would be ludicrous if it were not so serious. While
many of these effects cancel out, their costs do not. Each program
takes money from our pockets that we could use to buy goods
and services to meet our separate needs. Each of them uses able,
skilled people who could be engaged in productive activities. Each
one grinds out rules, regulations, red tape, forms to fill in that
bedevil us all.