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- A new Gallup poll has found that 57 percent of Americans think the government is "doing too much," prompting some concern that perhaps Barack Obama has missed his window of opportunity to convince Americans that government can be a positive force in their lives. But this makes it sound like the public just needed to be intellectually persuaded about this. Rather, people need concrete examples of government working for them. In retrospect, it was far easier for Ronald Reagan to convince people that "government is the problem" after the collapse of liberalism in social policy in the late 1960s and 1970s.
- Kevin Drum is cautiously optimistic after reading a Washington Post story about the FCC's new guidelines concerning net neutrality, and indeed FCC Chair Julius Genachowski appears to have strongly embraced the principles of neutrality at a speech at the Brookings Institute today. Good policy and sound regulations are always welcome, but it's important to keep in mind that it's pretty amazing the Internet even exists in its present form in the first place.
- Bruce Bartlett magnificently takes apart the idea that we can solve all our deficit problems by cutting government spending, pointing out that no politician is willing to go after non-discretionary spending, which accounts for the bulk of the federal budget: "[T]here is no evidence that it is politically possible to cut spending enough to make more than a trivial difference in our nation's fiscal problems. The votes aren't there and never will be. Those who continue to insist otherwise are living in a dream world and deserve no attention from serious people." And yet, Newt Gingrich is probably in some green room somewhere, about to make this very claim to a national audience with little if any objection from our media gatekeepers.
- Weekend Remainders: Support for health care reform remains unfazed after August; former White House czars demystify role of czars; some more glorious features of our world-renowned private health insurance system; it truly is a mystery why Fox News isn't taken seriously as a source of objective information; and Tim Pawlenty, anti-tax crusader.
--Mori Dinauer
