Avoid a one-party US government?

I have several friends who argue that we are best served by a multi-party logjam in D.C., chiefly a Republican president with a Democratic Congress or vice-versa (on the simply logic that, otherwise, the country swings way right or way left).

Two writers in the WSJ paint an even more doomsday scenario, claiming that the federal government is so large and powerful that

A unified president and Congress, can....take your money and give it to someone else, tell businesses what to produce and sell, who to hire and what wages to pay, set all commodity, wholesale, and retail prices...determine which students get slots in elite universities...Children could be required to spend the summer in government "youth" camps.