Time to give the lie to Reagan's Big Lie

Well, I'm back in Pasadena after my sojourn to Palm Desert. Have I missed anything?

I'm still getting back into swing here, so this post will be brief, but I keep having this thought: When will we finally be able to call out Ronald Reagan's Big Lie: that government is the problem, not the solution?

And when will we get over our shock that a government run by people who believe this, or at least claim to, is being poorly run?

It continually amazes me that our spending spree President still manages to do the most important things government does on the cheap.

Billion dollar payoffs to energy companies? Sure. Funding for the Army Corp of engineers to shore up New Orleans levees? Gotta excercize "fiscal restraint".

And to be clear, blame for this situation goes wider than the party currently in power and covers Democratic leaders who both fail to make the case to the American public that sometimes government does matter, to the media that fail in their obligation to expose governmental shortcomings, and frankly to a complacent public which meekly accepts whatever talking points are fed to them, as long as housing prices continue to rise.

I wait with bated breath for someone in the Democratic leadership to finally make the case that yes, sometimes a national initiative which can only be run on the federal level is needed. That in such situations wouldn't it be better if people who actually believe government can be a positive force were running the show?

[For more examples of how BushCorp™ is degrading government see Paul Krugman's article in today's NYT here.]