The Government Problem (Robert Reich)

[Triana]

Some believe the central political issue of our era is the size of the government. They’re wrong. The central issue is whom the government is for.

Consider the new spending bill Congress and the President agreed to a few weeks ago.

It’s not especially large by historic standards. Under the $1.1 trillion measure, government spending doesn’t rise as a percent of the total economy. In fact, if the economy grows as expected, government spending will actually shrink over the next year.

The problem with the legislation is who gets the goodies and who’s stuck with the tab.

For example, it repeals part of the Dodd-Frank Act designed to stop Wall Street from using other peoples’ money to support its gambling addiction, as the Street did before the near-meltdown of 2008.

THE REST:

http://www.nationofchange.org/2014/12/24/government-problem/

[rhett o rick]

1. And once again the local Conservatives rationalize that we should be happy because it could have

been worse. Why do I think that our friendly Con-Dems would tell people in the soup lines to cheer up because it could be worse.

At some point we need to stand and fight.

[Triana]

2. Most Dems no longer bother fighting for traditional Dem principles. Only a few..

...one of whom isn't a Dem (Sanders).

It gave people nothing to vote for except Bad...or Worse.

[Boreal]

3. Good article

I was going to I disagree with him saying the size (big) of government isn't a problem but then he said this:

If government were responding to the public’s interest instead of the moneyed interests, it would be smaller and more efficient.

And I agree.

My thinking is that things go in cycles. The United States is no different. I believe we are like Rome: completely and utterly corrupt. We must have the "strong dollar" in order to deal with the monstrous debt and a strong dollar means never ending war to feed the American hegemon beast. I think we're at the end of our cycle, sliding into the abyss. I wouldn't care about that so much if it weren't for the fact that turning into fascist police state and the people being looted wasn't a big part of it. It is, though, and we're in deep shit. You cannot fix rotten and the US is rotten to the core. No clocks are going to be re-wound and shit gets cleaned up. The thieves and liars have total control. Empires and nations come and go and this one will, too (much to the relief of other parts of the world, I'm sure). My big hope is that these maniacs don't drag us into WWIII before it's all said and done. They are trying.