Happiness Is Good, Less Government Spending Means More Happiness, Therefore Less Government Spending is Good.
Dennis Prager makes a very effective argument that evil is rarely associated with happy people:

“When you think about a Muslim suicide terrorist, is “happy” the first word you think of to describe him?

When you think about Nazis or Communists or Klansmen or child molesters, do you immediately think, “Now there are some happy people”?

Of course not.

It only takes a moment’s thought to realize that while most unhappy people don’t engage in evil, most evil is done by unhappy people.”

All too true. Alas, rather than focusing on Gross National Happiness, most governments seem intent on the opposite. It often seems to me that happiness is one of the last things on the agenda of either the left (who wallow in guilt and self-righteousness) or the right (who revel in ignorance and self-righteousness).

In fact, there is even research that shows that life satisfaction decreases with higher government spending.

Not to go all Libertarian on you or anything, but if life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness really are unalienable rights, it seems like we should try to maximize them, rather that stamp them out. When the government tries to legislate morality or behavior (by banning breast implants or abortion), when it takes away our resources to give them to someone else (be they the poor or big business), it interferes with the greatest goods it should be providing to its citizens.

Guess what politicians, you don’t know what I want, and you don’t know what’s better for me. So stop trying to tell me what to do and start focusing on giving people the kind of environment they need to pursue those American ideals.