Campaign 2012: Ron Paul's existential challenge to Washington - latimes.com

But Paul isn't saying the federal government is wasting every dollar it spends;

he's saying the federal government doesn't need to do much of what it does. Which gets us back to the existential challenge that Paul poses to Washington. Why is the federal government performing so many functions?

It's a good question to ask in these cash-strapped times, yet government officials rarely take it seriously. That's true in part because every program is guarded by a phalanx of interest groups. Rather than trying to redefine government's role, lawmakers often try to do the same things with fewer dollars.