Comments on: Do Americans and Their Elected Representatives Really Want a Much Smaller Government?

By: Jack Klark

Jack Klark — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 09:31:24 +0000

I have never seen so much hate for America and our President. I am personally proud of President obama and so is the Majority of the country and the world. But we still have those small republican pockets of resistance.

If republicans hate America so much why dont they leave? But to sit here and be disrespectful to the Commander in Chief of the united States President Barack Obama is just wrong.

By: Misaki

Misaki — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 22:09:33 +0000

>I’ve argued that the forthcoming election is about the role of government in our lives, with starkly different answers from the two parties.

If the Democratic party stands for larger government, is it also prepared to suggest higher taxes to pay for that larger government? Why have discussions about tax reform accepted the idea that “base broadening” will at best be neutral on total tax revenues as it would be accompanied by lower rates?

By: Devin Castles

Devin Castles — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:16:01 +0000

I think this is a pretty succinct explanation of the argument progressives need to make convincingly to win elections and change the role of government.

By: dpeterka

dpeterka — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 05:01:15 +0000

I suspect this has been covered at some point, but if we look at the National Debt, how much of it is due to the cumulative GW Bush tax cuts, how much is due to the cumulative impact of the wars, how much is from the cumulative cost of the various stimulus programs (TARP, ARA, etc… minus paybacks received), and how much is from the cumulative impact of the recession due to increased demand for government services such as unemployment payments and the loss of income tax revenue due to the unemployment increase (above whatever is considered normal)?

By: Fred Donaldson

Fred Donaldson — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 17:35:30 +0000

Scott,

Any subsidy by voucher can be destroyed by the elite. We need universal minimum healthcare and a real end to the monopolies and antitrust activities by healthcare providers.

Just imagine an intelligent nation agreeing that our drug factories are now mainly in China and Mexico, but the public must be protected from the possible dangers of drugs imported from Canada.

And the price here can be five times what they pay in Europe for the peace of mind that the true communists in Bejing oversee drug manufacture, not “socialist medicine” folks north of the border.

By: Scott Monje

Scott Monje — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 01:46:03 +0000

I’d like to take the opportunity to ask an unrelated question that has been bugging me. Ryan’s plan for Medicare seems to resemble the basic structure of the ACA. (We’ll overlook the irony of that for the moment.) If his plan to subsidize Medicare recipients is unlikely to cover the recipients’ anticipated insurance needs, does that mean that the subsidies for low-income insurees under the ACA are also likely to fall behind sooner or later, or are the Ryan shortfalls something that he has written into the plan specifically to reduce federal expenditures? Or, even if not the same as the Ryan payments, are the ACA subsidies any less likely than Medicaid to be subjected to periodic cost-cutting by Congress? Also, if competition has not managed to keep Medicare Advantage cheaper than regular Medicare, or even as cheap as regular Medicare, does that mean that the ACA exchanges are not likely to produce much in the way of cost savings either?