Republicans and Big Government

[LiberalFighter]

Republicans and Big Government
by James Ostrowski

But should we really be so surprised? Contrary to popular myth, every Republican president since and including Herbert Hoover has increased the federal government's size, scope, or power--and usually all three. Over the last one hundred years, of the five presidents who presided over the largest domestic spending increases, four were Republicans. Include regulations and foreign policy, as well as budgets approved by a Republican Congress, and a picture begins to emerge of the Republican Party as a reliable engine of government growth.

Herbert Hoover
Increased federal spending 38 percent (current dollars)

Dwight Eisenhower
Increased federal spending 30 percent

Richard Nixon
Increased federal spending 70 percent

Gerald Ford
Knocked 8 cents off your dollar in just two years

Ronald Reagan
Increased federal spending 53 percent

George Herbert Walker Bush
Increased federal spending 12 percent

Republican Congress
Increased federal spending and taxes collected each year


George Bush II continues this inglorious tradition. He proposes a huge increase in defense spending: "My budget includes the largest increase in defense spending in two decades, because while the price of freedom and security is high, it is never too high: whatever it costs to defend our country, we will pay it."

[mchill]

1. I'm a federal employee

I've worked under 5 presidents now; only empirical evidence.

Most cuts in personnel and budget: Clinton
Biggest cuts in employee benefits: Reagan
Largest hiring period: Reagan/Papa Bush
Biggest push to transfer public jobs to private sector: Bush jr.
Least success at changing the status quo: Bush jr.

[ohioliberal]

2. That's all the Repukes

can do is spend money on defense, that's why my dad love it when they got into office because he worked for a defense contracter. Boy did we have a go round this time.

[LiberalFighter]

3. The myth of small government

The myth of small government

You are the government
No one will argue more vehemently than I will that the average person isn't involved enough in the workings of government. Most Americans are far too apathetic, and many who aren't feel constant frustration over their own inability to effect real change. Money plagues the political process.

Nevertheless, we still live in a democracy, and voters still have ultimate responsibility for the officials and policies of our government. The common rhetoric of conservatives referring to "those folks in Washington spending your money" draws a picture of the government as a malevolent Them that's out to get its hands on as much of your hard-earned cash as possible.

Don't believe a word of it. The government is--or should be--society's efforts to do collectively the important tasks we can't accomplish individually. And this means more than building roads and throwing criminals in jail. It means helping those in need and supporting the things that make life worthwhile. Government can be our best selves. We should think of it as something essential--not external--to our lives.

We are the government, and the taxes we pay are not robbery. They are the portion of our resources we devote to making our country a decent place to live.

[cpalson]

4. Big government better?

The issue of big or small government is a crock. Whenever anyone tells me we need a smaller government, I can usually turn the conversation around by saying the following:

We don't want big gov. But neither do we want small gov. What we really should demand is SMART government. Sometimes that means more government, and sometimes less.

More government: we need more government officials to enforce existing laws. Environemntal and workplace laws, for example, are routinely ignored by the giant corporations because they know there aren't nearly enough enforcers. They therefore violate laws with impunity.

How come we don't have enough enforcers? Because they use their influence and power to make sure government agencies are starved of funds.

Less government: do we really need to fund efforts to police our behavior in the bedroom, etc.

Try these arguments out on the first unsuspecting right winger you meet. You'll be surprised. The opener is a killer. They are stuck because they can't respond by saying they prefer dumb government.