Who really wants limited government?

Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and every other wingnut and wanna-be wingnut preach that government is too big. That's it's too powerful. That the biggest threat to liberty is government.

The government wants to micromanage. The government wants to intrude into our daily lives.We want limited government!

Really?

If the current batch of Republicans seeking the party's nomination for president really want to limit the size and scope of government, then why the hell are they involving the government in what folks do in their bedrooms?

I understand why Catholic organizations are a bit miffed that they are being required to provide their employees with coverage for birth control. On the other hand, I think the Catholic church did a good job in encourage Catholics around the world to make more Catholics. Now, with some seven billion of us sharing the earth, I think the time for that policy has long since come and gone.

Perhaps someone can help me out on this, but I don't recall a commandment that reads "Thou shalt not use birth control." That was but a proclamation by the head of the church.

We don't need to politicize health care. We are living with the vestiges of a system designed to stave off the Red Menace back in the 40's and 50's. Employers began offering health care coverage to their employees as a way of placating the unions. Now we're stuck with a bunch of for-profit companies making health care decisions based on cost operating under different rules in every state. It also means that people risk losing their coverage if they change jobs and many whom lose their jobs can't afford the astronomical cost of continuing their coverage.

But that's all beside the point.

We all have the right to be left alone by the government. And defending that right is the essence of limited government. It's not the government's business what a couple does in their bedroom. If a church wants to raise a stink about whether folks conduct themselves according to a code of morality - that's fine. We are all free to ignore what the church says.

But we can't just ignore what the government says. Especially when what it's saying relates to our private conduct.

Folks who work for Catholic organizations have just as much right to the same level of health care coverage as someone working for Ford or Google or the government itself. It's not the workers' fault that our health care delivery system is fatally flawed.

But it is the utmost in hypocrisy for presidential candidates to climb up on the soapbox and preach against the evils of government and the need to reign in its powers and then advocate that the government stick its nose into our bedrooms.