Everytime I Hear a Republican Say They Don't Want "Big Giovernment," I Want to Punch Him (or Her) in the Face

Please. Just be honest. It's not that you don't want "big government." You don't want big government in social services or in domestic issues. You don't want government employees handling the duties needed to make the federal government run.

Instead, Republicans just hire the work out to contractors who do the work for profit. And have lobbyists. The following stats were reported by Morning Edition on NPR in Dec 2008.

-Since President Bush took office, the government has doubled the amount of
contracts with industry. The administration paid corporations more than $400
billion last year to work for everybody from the Forest Service to the CIA.

-The administration has given the majority of that contract money to
companies that didn't have to compete to get it — or faced only limited
competition.

-There are actually more contractors handling the war in Iraq
than American troops.

The current batch of contractors have former President Reagan to thank for kicking off the start of the largest number of contractors working for the federal government. Former President Clinton continued the trend, "And then came President Bush, who said "big government is not the answer" and shattered all the previous records for contracting out [work]" (NPR, Dec 1, 2008).

So really, this talk of no big government is a farce. Sort of like John McCain spouting off about how deregulation of the banking industry is good. Deregulation means less government oversight and therefore "smaller government." Yeah, we see how well that's been working out.

So Republicans, think about the spin you keep trying to put to the American public and jsut be honest about what you want. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the Democrats took the White House this last election. Or just STFU. Either one I'm good with.

Sources:
Obama To Tackle Explosion In Federal Contracts - NPR, Morning Edition, December 1, 2008.
McCain’s Pro-Deregulation History Exposed, Becoming a Major Liability in the Presidential Race - Rob Kellogg, Government Investment Watch, September 19, 2008.