As listeners know, Clark steers away from political talk on his show. But columnist Jonah Goldberg recently wrote an op-ed piece about government spending that really interested Clark. Goldberg analyzed how spending grew in the 25 years following Reagan's 1981 inauguration. During that time the U.S. population grew around 30 percent, yet government spending rose almost 90 percent after adjustments for inflation. The reason behind the surge in government spending growth is pretty simple really. Human nature dictates that there's a natural tendency to want a "free lunch" from the government. That's an inclination that goes beyond whether you live in a red or a blue state. We as a nation need to decide what we're about; so far we've been about wanting it all. We have become some of the highest taxers in the world, Clark says, and that's irrespective of party affiliation. So there's a question we must ask ourselves: Do we want to grow our economy and have more in the long run, or do we want to curtail growth in order to have more money to redistribute to people? Colorado has been particularly effective in controlling the growth of government spending with their Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, which limits spending to the growth in population plus inflation. There's a difficult balance to be struck here. Clark thinks we may be tying one hand behind our backs with our spending, and we're growing weaker and weaker compared to other capitalist economies.