You know, they can say whatever they want about being anti-big government but George W Bush added the biggest increase in government in decades. He exponentially increased the amount of government involvement in our private lives through the Department of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act.
The Tea Party Libertarian candidates with their anti-government regulation schtick want to increase the restrictions on abortion and discriminating against same-sex couples while decreasing the Department of Education and thereby putting huge cutbacks into teachers pay and eliminating national education standards. By reducing government oversight of businesses they are giving corporations and the financial industry free license to ruin our lives.
There's a basic difference in principles here, I think. Progressives and liberals look to government to provide stability and protection. Conservatives want to freedom for businesses to make money by cutting back regulations and taxes so they can gain campaign contributions. Tea Party people and Libertarians wand the government to step away and ignorantly believe that the private commercial and financial sectors will protect consumers and the economy just out of the goodness of their hearts.
It's criminal to think that government regulation and taxation to balance the budget are bad when we've had a plethora of examples of what happens when corporations are not regulated enough both through the financial collapse and through the BP oil spill.
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