David Corn speaks the unthinkable: "What's wrong with big government?" At the risk of incurring the wrath of the Tea Partiers, of course.
Video image from an interview by Stuart Schulzke of Fora.tv with American political analyst David Corn, 12/18/09. (image: Fora.tv)
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NO corporation has an interest in promoting the common good. The ONLY thing a corporation, any corporation promotes is its' own bottom line, public be damned.
As to Wall Street, there have never been more regulations on securities trading at any time than there are now. Few seem to realize that the creation of more regulations merely means the creation of more loopholes.
The only legitimate power of government is to insure that no one touches your body, your property, or your money without your permission. That requires no libraries of regulations or armies of bureaucrats. All that is required is an honest police force and court system to insure that those who are wronged can seek redress.
You won't find that on a "Tea Party" banner. The Tea Party does not want small government. They just want government that picks on other people than it does now.
A severe LACK of Regulations is what allowed 'Too Big To Fail' to exist in the first place and also allowed them to crash the entire planet's economy.
Deregulation of Media Ownership Rules is what's allowed for almost all Media in America to now be owned and exploited by just a few, huge Global Corporations... Tell me.., do you trust the information you get from 'Global Corporate Newz' to be actual real, truthful information you can actually use..?
Deregulation has made our food, water, air and drug quality assurance less assured.
The 'Deregulation/L ess Government Tragic Outcomes List' is endless...
Big Government of the People served us quite well for a very long time. Then along came Ronald Reagan and his declarations that ''Government IS the Problem.''
Soon after, a new breed of CONservatives came along and led millions of voters to believe that a lot LESS GOVERNMENT (of ourselves) would be a Good Thing.
Now, after 30 years of Their type of Government and a long time of NOT THEM before Reagan, We the People can actually compare the STATE OF THE UNION under both regimes.
In my book, a Big Government of the People by the People for the People wins hands down over the Post Reagan CONservative style of 'Less Government' of the People (a.k.a.., A Corporatcracy of the Corporate by the Corporate for the Corporate).
'Less Government of OURSELVES' is what is sold through Global Corporate CONservative Media to the Tea Party Crowd as the pathway to Liberty and Prosperity.
A Good Question is--- Why are they buying it ?
powered cani cruiser and get out there on the boom line to hold the oil slick from ruining their beachfront resort and retirement properties. Funny how that works, ain't it?
The problem is NOT big government; it is BAD government, like how the GOP rules. Would Katrina have been so terrible if not for BAD government? We know it wasn't the size of government, because a GOP President and GOP Congress had annihilated FEMA, weakening it beyond belief, even to the point of hiring a completely unqualified director just because of his blind loyalty to the GOP mantras. When will you learn? The GOP mantras have resulted in the Great Depression and now the Great Recession. Are you gluttons for punishment?
If what you said were true (but it isn't), then Obama would have come in, and made it worse by virtue of his liberality, with tons more "big government" in FEMA. Yet, the governors of Kentucky and Tennessee (republican) are full of praise at how quickly and efficiently FEMA responded to the recent floods there.
Ooops! Does that totally blow your cockamamey idiotic theories out of the proverbial flood waters?
Would small government be able to do that? Would "BAD" government, like what is created by hiring anti-government people like Bush and Brownie, be able to respond to this disaster? Of course not. But GOOD government does.
Ever since your regrettable Reagan changed the tax structure, the rich have been getting richer, and the poor are just getting poorer. THAT is re-distribution of income alright! ALL of the Gross Domestic Product (our resources) is being given to those who work the least, and you think that's just fine?
Big Government that's at fault, but Congress (The House of Reprehensatives and the SENILE). They are the guys who just can't keep from spending more and more money, and the good old American voters keep reelecting them, year after year.
Mr. Corn would have us believe that if a ship has a bad captain, adding a second captain would improve the situation! The real solution would, of course be much more direct; fire the incompetent.
Mr. Corn would have us believe that 'big government' ("quality" undefined/unimp ortant) would prevent natural disasters like huge methane bubbles that likely caused the current oil catastrophe and laws could actually prevent damages from huge hurricanes or tornadoes. To Mr. Corn, no matter how big government gets, it will not prevent global warming from Volcanoes.
Meanwhile, The personal debt of our Grandchildren, every one, will continue to grow about the $200,000.00 current burden. Do you propose they can afford more “BIG Government”????
"Big Government" that is innept is the problem! TEA Party people know that unlimited money flowing into such a scam is unfair to our grandkids and does nothing to reduce the huge risks to their future.
Mr. Corn is disengenuous when he doesn't address the problems of that largest and growing part of our government and the most powerful. They outnumber our Elected government by more than twenty to one and are the single most corrupting factor IN OUR GOVERNMENT. The donkeys and Elephants have failed but The TEA Party is big enough now to take them on.
Do you know what a logical progression analysis is? If you take the tenets of you teabaggers, imagin these as realized and project that into the future, you get horror that defies description. You worry about fraud and waste as if big business didn't have anything to do with this when it has EVERYTHING to do with this. You get YOUR facts straight!
Me a bigot? Read a dictionary for petes sake. Oh, and I don't give a damn if I influence anyone. I'd rather people learned to think for themselves. Give it a try, Ed.
And I echo other posters here: we are a country of 330 million people, so Big Government is a logical answer to problems that are national and international in scope.
Rep's and TP'ers in particular, have the fantasy belief, the political myth, that interdependent problems go away if you don't fund them. Human suffering doesn't stop because an administration changes.
When the parties come together, and the country unites behind real human needs, and acts to protect the environment, and life, before consumption and profit takes precedent, we may have a chance for human surivival. See Zeitgeist, the movie, and thevenusproject .com.
The industrial complex has had it's day and look what they did to the Government, the people, the environment.
All of it base greed and anti human, anti government, anti planet, and anti responsibilty.
So let's have a Taj Mahal of a Government and, how about making The industrial Complex pay for it!!!
They can afford it!
Of course there is a bonus to the Republicans, that is that the insurance companies make donations to Republican candidates who favor the "free market" approach, thus putting tax money to uses none of the taxpayers intended.
We now need our BIG GOVERNMENT (Congress and the White House) to do the job we need it to do. Until we can remove BIG influence on our elected representatives (campaign finance reform) we'll have trouble getting our elected officials to respond to US!
Now if you are a normal citizen, who actually works for a living, then you take the other view and have no problem whatsoever with "Big Government."
And how is this mess of a health care "system" better than the single-payer medicare so many other countries are so happy with?
such a limiting forum so put your thinking cap on and ponder this. THE BIGGER THE GOVERNMENT, THE SMALLER THE CITZEN.
I know the answer but I await a novel explanation by those who are certain that low or no taxes are the best way to build and maintain a civilization.
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