If I were a repub, I would be seriously asking if people really do want smaller government.

[Stinky The Clown]

That should not be confused with whether or not people wanted profligate spending and crushing deficits. We already got *that* from Repubics.

But do people really not want bigger government when 'bigger' government might actually be the right answer?

Say what you will, but, when it comes right down to it, I would bet my left testicle that almost no one would not favor cheaper, better healthcare for which their employer would no longer have to pay and checks for which they would never have to personally write.

Who would not favor increased government scrutiny of the thugs who have been running our financial giants? Would even a trickle down supply sider object to a few more federal investigators if they prevented the Roman orgies STILL being undertaken by AIG on our bailoutbux?

How happy might the automakers be right now if they had been forced to make fuel efficient cars ten or twenty years ago such that they'd still be solvent today and busily making cars you and I want to buy? How happy would their workers be? Even the ones who would vote to have phantom welfare queens burned at the stake?

Would anyone object to a more competent, muscular FEMA?

Big government is not bad government. And now that we've had eight years of bad government, I expect most epople will be thrilled to have good government.

Government that works.

Some of it bigger. Some of it leaner.

All of it better.

I'm amazed that we may well have finally wrestled this issue away from the Repubics, where it has been bastardized and abused.

[MrsBrady]

1. the problem is -- is that they don't ask and they don't think n/t

[Juche]

2. The GOP lives in a bubble

In between inaction on Katrina, a healthcare system on the brink of collapse, lack of action on global warming and alt. energy, infrastructure problems, too much deregulation of the economy, etc. the public are clamoring for bigger, stronger government. But the GOP doesn't care. They will walk off a cliff with their ideology that served them so well a quarter of a century ago but doesn't apply to this 21st century world.

[hangman86]

3. It's a popular cliche to be say that government is not the answer

People have been complaining about government for so long that even when it does something good they don't want to acknowledge it for fear of sounding like a brainwashed relic of the USSR.

The thing I love the most about the the Republican argument of smaller government is that they say it will guarantee more freedom for the individual.:rofl:

Yeah, the wealthiest individual. People seem to forget that politicians aren't the only evil people with power in the world. With the kind of government that Ron Paul is pushing for, we would be at the mercy of corporations, lobbyists, and ruthless foreign leaders even more so then we are now. We all love the word "freedom," but like anything else, it's a double-edged sword. It can give people happiness in life but it can also allow stupid people to do stupid things.

I don't want to live in American version of the Soviet Union. I'm also never hesitant to call out the government when I feel it's doing wrong. But to diminish it down to the size that the ultra-Conservatives want would just put us at the mercy of the wealthiest 1%.