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Constitution Day is an opportunity to look beyond the document itself and ask a bigger question: How did a government designed to have limited powers become so large—and accumulate more than $40 trillion in debt?

The answer is not found in a single law, policy, or administration. It is a story that stretches across more than two centuries of American history.

Start with the Source

Understanding the growth of government also means understanding the document that was intended to define and limit its powers.

The Independent Guide to the Constitution ([link removed][%E2%80%A6]ium=email&utm_campaign=constitutionbook&utm_content=ibd2545&utm_source=Independent+Institute+Subscription&utm_campaign=d48e98bfc4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_08_19_09_38_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-5b3260a18f-217731781) offers a clear introduction to the Constitution, its structure, the principles behind it, and how to restore it. It's available now—at a discount.

“The ‘original intentions’ of the people who ratified the U.S. Constitution were largely unlike the ‘modern inventions’ under which we now live. With The Independent Guide to the Constitution, William J. Watkins Jr. makes all clear.”
—Kevin R. C. Gutzman, J.D., Ph.D., professor of history, Western Connecticut State University
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The Constitution established specific limits on federal power. But over time, those limits have been reinterpreted, expanded, and, in some cases, set aside.

Robert Higgs' work on the ratchet effect ([link removed]) helps explain one way this happens: during wars, economic crises, and other emergencies, government power expands rapidly. When the crisis ends, government may retreat somewhat—but rarely all the way back to where it started.

The result is a ratchet: government grows, establishes a new baseline, and then grows again—which helps explain how we got to where we are today.

What Does $40 Trillion Cost You?

The national debt is difficult to comprehend at this scale. But behind the numbers are real taxes, spending, and programs.

MyGovCost Calculator ([link removed]) puts government spending into perspective, helping you see how much government costs—and where your tax dollars go.
See What Government Costs You ([link removed])

The Constitution sets limits on government power. The history of the United States is, in part, the history of how those limits have been interpreted, tested, and expanded.

This Constitution Day, take a closer look at the Constitution—and at the history of how we arrived at a government so much larger than the one its framers envisioned.

Best regards,

Independent Institute

“In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
—Thomas Jefferson

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