We Want More Government

Why do "green" light bulbs contain the deadly metal, mercury?

Why do required vaccinations contain a mercury derivative?

We? Maybe anyone who has made a poor effort in life is for more govt. Anybody with a half of a brain knows the complete failure of more government. Look around the world for 5 minutes. Bigger the govt / more welfare for idiots, the bigger the failure. Govt has never solved one problem, just made things worse. We fought and broke free from Europe, more / intrusive government. We attained great heights like never before. Now what are we doing? Going backwards. You peeps are just setting yourself up for more socialist misery. How you don't see that is mind-boggling and should be studied. RUN from the dems/socialist. Save this country.

"Republicans want to cut taxes without cutting spending. Democrats want to increase spending without increasing taxes, except on the rich":
GOP part looks like reasonable idea - it was historically proven that cutting taxing percentage (to the point) often increase the absolute tax income.
The Democrats part looks like a moronic joke, simple math tell us that increased spending adds to deficit, and history teaches us that riches tax percentage increase above some point (and we are already above) in fact decreases their contribution.
Good luck, Obama supporters, in 2010 you will pay dearly (in money equivalent) for this year craziness.

Aside from the fact that we don't have the money to do all these things at once, there are fundamental issues of responsibility, fairness, even justice.

How to be fair in a society, a nation, where every man woman, child, corporation, business, organization, school, college, university, and transgender person believes with a pure and abiding faith that hesheitthey isare entitled to some form of government support. And with good reason. Don't you think?

Think it was the dirty Democrats? OK. Think it was the dirty Republicans, the Independents, the Socialists, the Communists, the Dixiecrats?

Just stop it. Stop with the whiney laments and face the greater reality. The enemy is indeed US. You too Sammy. You know what I mean.

Reality also includes its shadow: the wheels stop turning when the money runs out, but the wheels grind, screech, and freeze when the golden goose stops getting laid (a hot summer metaphor mix!).

Point being: we would not recognize the world of balanced budgets. Honduras, Uganda, Sri Lanka, come to mind. Switzerland has managed to keep their little fiefdom fat and sassy without heavy taxation, but I have lived in Switzeland and believe me, we are no Alpine anonymous account paradise here in these already socialism soaked American states. Our banks yodel a way different tune here.

When the longest line in America is a que-up of generous folks divesting themselves of every last social "benefit," direct, indirect, or invisible, then we can dream the impossible dream.

But then we will have to learn all over how to make the wheels go around and how to keep the golden goose happy.

OK. Who'll be the first to bend over?

Jordan C. Fan, Prophet of Environment.

Obama and his supporters especially Blacks currently are engaged in an ingenious criminal dirty trick. Obama supporters or Black businessmen formed some financial and legal consulting companies advertised extensively on TV telling people that they will help people get out of debts, taxes, mortgages or refinance. Those advertisements or commercials are unusually long taking up many minutes. More than half of the length of those commercials are Obama's speeches telling people how supportive he is in helping people out of debt and how great he is all over. These are extremely cunning acts and dirty tricks by Blacks to profit from people suffering from debts and financial crisis while making political statements and advertisement at the same time.

We are a daring society. We like to walk tightropes, dance on the edges of precipices, sky dive, and even sky box. Sky boxing is done by two parachutists jumping from an airplane with parachutes and boxing gloves. The contestants box on their way down and the last one to pull the ripcord wins the bout. We are also daring with budgets, enjoying spending money without collecting money, on credit, of course. Our government is best at this, having monstrous credit. It might be due to pull a ripcord, though, before it hits the ground.

I don't think anyone actually wants an expansion of Government, and the article is not clear on that point unless it is the possible expansion of health care administration.
After Bush expanded government 40%; I doubt the administration of heath care would equal just Bush's expansion of the IRS.
The fact is Medicare is one of the most efficiently run government programs. The IRS is out and out dysfunctional.
No one likes tax's and we are seeing increases everywhere particularly in sales tax to support the government we now have, not to support an increase in the size of government.
As the middle class contracted and continues to do so the deficit will continue to expand simply because America can no longer support the government.
The number of homeless continues to rise and many of these people were once taxpayers for example.
The problem isn't so much government wants it both ways as it is individuals.
Don't for get we now have a free market economy and it is now private individuals; most notably Wall Street that dictates economic policy without the regulation of government
And they demand lower wages for the working class, lower taxes to increase profit without a thought to a deficit.
Many it would seem would do away with government altogether in their demands for smaller government.

As a Californian living in Norway I have experienced both ends of the taxing continuum. Americans want much but don't want to pay. Pay with plastic then go bankrupt. Borrow the maximum on the home, then walk away if the value goes south. Today in Norway's Aftenposten there is a survey of popular and unpopular taxes here. The 100% tax on new cars and the gasoline taxes that triple our per gallon cost over what Americans pay are in the top 5. But remember Norway pays for its services and is one of three countries without debt. The popular free ebook series "And Gulliver Returns"--In Search of Utopia-- discusses the maximum tax rate people will tolerate (in Book 4 at http://andgulliverretturns.info) Perhaps every spending bill should be required to list how it will be paid for.

I'm sorry to say but this country is done for. I'll tell you why this recession despite being horrible for my finances, has been a blessing in disguise. I don't think no matter how rich, how great your job is, how high-rolling you've become, it could ever be a substitute for good friends and family. So our nations values should be really simple, help your family, your friends and your neighbors and just be glad you have people in your life. With all the greed and people living beyong their means, the depression rate has soared because i think at the end of the day you just want good people around you. Goverment shouldn't have to be so involved but this country has become such a mess, they have no chioce. CEOs and VPs that were collecting multimillinion dollar a year paychecks need to get over themselves. Everyone deserves a decent income based on how hard they work but come on. And then the argument that welfare recipients and people collection unemployment are bums is ridiculous, that's not a nice life and if those recipients had the means and wearwithall to get off it I'm sure they would. I think most people aren't lazy, they want to work, but the job situation has become dire. I don't know i'm saddened by where this country has gone, and i wish that people would get back to reality and make it better. More cooperating and less bickering.

This article is excellent. The article is correct on a number of points. We do have unprecedented and possibly permanent government expansions going on right now that we may or may not want and we need to be discussing this. Someone absolutely needs to tackle the growing budget problem and entitlement reform. Do to our desire for government services, especially the entitlements, and a lack of desire to be taxed, no one on either party is addressing these important issues and is responsibly managing our government's money. I sure hope Obama addresses entitlement reform like he says he would as he must, but so far he's been all talk and done "just the opposite" with his health-care proposal. (Why when we have an entitlement problem is Obama going to add a Medicare-like public option and pay for health care reform by reforming Medicare? Did he forget about the Baby Boomers or that Medicare is an entitlement?) However, I must say that I certainly have an appetite for someone to address these issues and would gladly vote for the politician who finally steps up to actually address these issues.

Keep writing good stuff like this Robert Samuelson!

I think what we need is for American tax dollars to stay in America. The time as come for us to stop supporting every country but our own. Show me where it says we must support so many other countries? Get rid of NAFTA and other things like it. Help small companies get started. If the companies that have outsourced our jobs do not like the new rules then no more tax breaks, period. Stop allowing companies to bring people from other countries to take American jobs and if you are an illegal you have jobs here. America for Americans by Americans. Time to take our country back. The money going overseas (millions everyday would help to stop the collapse of this country and its people.

The worst of all this is, without a doubt, that Government Programs Never Go Away. Once they become established, they remain in perpetuity; what began as a 'crisis management tool' or 'safety net' becomes first an expectation and then a god-given right which is demanded and depended upon. Think of it: during the Depression, people would work for ANYTHING, would do ANY kind of work, and could be put to work at jobs we today relegate and delegate to immigrants...because people were too proud to take a handout. Now, you see healthy people who could certainly work, with their hands out. If those hands don't get filled, the hands turn into fists. How DARE they not receive their DUE?

Government programs get larger and larger over time. They do not shrink, they do not become better-managed or more responsible. They waste money, lose money, and spend it like...it was theirs to spend, and was not taken by force from taxpayers, on threat of imprisonment or confiscation of their possessions.

We don't need bigger government. We need our individual pride back.