On Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, George Will eloquently surmised the United States government as being a government with its hands in everything and never knowing when to stop.

His comments stemmed from a conversation between Brit Hume and Juan Williams over American citizens seeing their own government as incompetent. Williams argued that people are always saying that about the government, even while receiving their Social Security checks and other benefits. "'I hate government!' That's so American. We all say it," Williams said.

Will stepped in and laid it down in the way only he can:

They say that because government is not competent. Frankly, it's not competent under Republicans or under Democrats, because it is always a monopoly and monopolies are not disciplined by market forces that connect them with reality.

Teasing this segment you [Wallace] said, 'Can we have faith in government?' I think we have much more to fear from excesses faith in government than from too little faith in government. You asked, 'Can we trust the government to do its job?' What isn't its job nowadays?

Will listed what the government thinks its job is:

It's fine-tuning the curriculum of our students K through 12. It's monitoring sex on campuses. It's deciding how much ethanol we should put in our gas tanks. It has designed our light bulbs and it's worried sick over the name of the Washington football team. Now this is a government that doesn't know when to stop.

Williams told Will he appreciated his small government argument. But Will said it was time to get partisan and pointed out the problem with progressives:

The distilled essence of progressivism is that government is a benign, that is, disinterested force -- that's false -- and B, it is stocked with experts who are really gifted at doing things. Republicans do this also. Democrats do it in domestic policy, the Republicans brought us nation building and regime change. A common theme is excessive faith in the skills of government.