John OTSC said:

"I do not favor a national government that gets overwhelmingly into the private sector and the private pocket."

This seems to be the ultimate, base, overriding concept most serious conservatives fall back on... well, that and tax cuts for the rich.

Now, that sounds like a nice slogan on its face, but 'small, unobstrusive government' requires a lot of assumptions to work...not the least of which is a sane, honest and competent "private sector".
We are now in a place where the deregulation which the Republicans, led by Phil Graham, rammed down our throats a few years back, has played a major role in creating this crisis!

Some one said last night (I think in response to Jindal's speech) that the Republicans are now saying "yes, we know we overspent and allowed cheating and supported a bad war, but TRUST US now...we promise we won't do it again"!

And what do they propose as a sane, reasonable course of action? Why, more of the same principles & practices! They vote AGAINST almost everything Obama tries to do...why? Because they, by God, have a slogan that says "big government is bad!"

Sorry, John...big government is what you make it. HONEST government can do fine. If regulation is needed to oversee and control complex issues, and we out honest, intelligent people to work DOING the oversight, eventually everyone should be well-served. It's just that 'some' won't be as well-served as they feel is their right...like when they were able to manipulate the system for personal gain....with the results we now see!

This is gonna be HARD to fix....and Obama last night made the point that he was not going to tolerate the pork and earmarks and wasteful crap that has gone on for 7-8 years. (Halliburton must be quaking in it's collective boots!)


So....keep repeating your ..."Get government out of our...whatever" ...mantra, but get used to the idea that if YOUR systems leads to problems, then we get to try OUR system. It would behoove the conservatives to try some grudging cooperation and rethinking of just exactly what they really want to promote if they EVER want to get back any semblance of respect.