Maybe 1912 which was the last year before federal taxes and the federal reserve?

There is so much bloat, doing anything like fighting taxes is almost impossible to figure out, laws upon laws that get added to every year, police have so much red tape unless the courts have an open and shut case they can't do anything, and the list goes on.

Sure hope Trump, DOGE, and all of his other picks get us closer to being on the path that our founders intended

Nobody knows.

I'm thinking 1787... Seriously.

I think 1912 is a fair answer. 1913 changed the relationship between the federal government and the states and citizens of the nation. Worst year in American history.

After George. How many men were humble enough to pass on the chance to be king? He walked away willingly after 8 years. I don't think there's a single other president since then that would have had the integrity to do what he did. The vast majority of people are in it for themselves.

Trump may be here to help the average American as well, but I have zero doubts he'd stay in office as long as he could if there were no term limits.

Congress will not reduce spending. Just watch, democrat senators will stop it, CR's for the next 2 years. 6% growth every year.

As stated above, the passage of the 16th amendment and the establishment of the IRS was likely the last possible time the federal government "worked" in the manner most beneficial to the citizens.

After that, and the subsequent election of the odious Woodrow Wilson the inexorable expansion of the federal government beyond it's constraints set by the constitution was inevitable.

When the US government ceded their authority to print money to a group of private bankers is absolutely the action of a government not working for the people.

You can make arguments that it happened earlier than 1913 but those arguments are not as concrete as the above.