I wonder how much of a role the fact that Americans mistrust their government (and one part of the government mistrusts the other) plays in increasing the size of government - at the end of the day, every last piece of legislation - good or bad, needs checks and balances, right? Could it be that the cost (in both time and money) of checks and balances eventually outweighs the benefits of having them? Perhaps that should be a way to measure if a government has grown too large.