Who Is Cheering For Big Government?

USA Today has a misleading headline story claiming that people are cheering the return of big government (for now).

Most Americans say they're glad Big Government is back to help through hard times. But they aren't sure they want it to stay.

The Obama administration, trying to reverse the economy's meltdown and prevent it from happening again, is redefining the role of the federal government in the economy — spending trillions of dollars, building new regulatory systems for financial institutions and effectively taking over a major part of the automobile industry.

Although an expansive federal government hasn't had a defender in the White House for nearly a half-century — since Lyndon Johnson and his Great Society program — most Americans in a nationwide USA TODAY/Gallup Poll approve of President Obama and the government's latest assertiveness. However, some of the steps he has ordered have made them wary.

By 3-to-1, those surveyed say government's expansion should be cut back when the economic crisis is over.

"They should do whatever is necessary, especially for the automobile business," says Lee Heffner, 78, of Temple, Pa., who was among those polled. For 50 years, he ran the Ford dealership his father founded during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Even so, he worries, "it seems we're on the trend of nationalization for a lot of things. Once the government gets into something, it's very seldom they back out of it."

Obama on Tuesday defended his economic proposals and the results they've gotten so far, calling it "a new foundation" for sustainable economic growth through this century. "We have been called to govern in extraordinary times," he said in the speech at Georgetown University, cautioning that 2009 "will continue to be a difficult year."

The White House, experimenting with Washington's role in the economy, is taking unprecedented steps: helping some homeowners who can't handle their mortgage payments, underwriting the warranties for GM and Chrysler cars and organizing a huge public-private rescue plan to buy up banks' most troubled assets. The Treasury Department on Friday pegged the budget deficit for this year at $1.75 trillion, nearly quadruple last year's record shortfall.

The moves have raised questions about how far government should go in directing the market — and whether, in some sectors, it could wind up deciding which businesses survive and which ones fail. An opening sketch this month on NBC's Saturday Night Live showed a faux Obama delivering edicts on the survival of everything from fast-food chains to makers of jeans. ("Levi's, yes," the Obama impersonator deadpanned. "Wrangler, no.")

Where to begin with this mess? How about with the polling figures that show that most Americans think that Congress and the Administration have spent too much money on the stimulus package (aka porkfest). 55% think that they spent too much. I'd say that's a repudiation of the idea of big government right there. It also is why the Tea Party protests have picked up steam around the country.

The breakdown of whether government has taken too much power is close - 46% the Administration has the right amount of power, while 40% think they got too much. I'd say that as more people realize the extent to which the Administration has grabbed power at the expenses of citizens, the states, and businesses, those numbers will turn around.

Strangely, the percentage of people who think that government is doing too much is 50% compares with 42% who think that government should be doing more.

Taken together, it suggests that the Administration is heading for a backlash.

Has anyone actually polled to find out whether we won that War on Poverty? Big government programs have been mostly a disaster, destroying inner cities with such ideas as urban renewal (destroying tenements and building densely packed housing projects that destroyed the social fabric of communities and allowed the rise of crime and decay through urban areas across the country). Other big government projects resulted in massive spending with no care for the consequences of paying for the programs down the road - think Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Also ignored by USA Today is the rise of the Tea Party protests, which started as a grassroots protest against out of control government spending. The protests have spread across the country and show that there is widespread dissatisfaction with the exorbitant spending beyond our national means. Throwing hundreds of billions at failed companies and then hundreds of billions more at pork barrel programs that may not even get started for several years as a stimulus to the economy now is an insult to our collective intelligence.

The economy has been showing signs of recovery even before the porkfest projects get underway. The government, had it chosen to not spend one penny on new programs in the porkfest, would have saved more than $1 trillion. Instead, we'll be paying off that massive spending for generations to come. Our grandkids will be paying for this costly choice.

It's not simply anti-spending that is fueling the Tea Party protests, but the out-of-control spending that threatens to undermine confidence in the US government and the financial markets. The Obama Administration is not letting the crisis pass without taking full advantage of the situation by pushing through an agenda that massively expands government programs and projects. It's the priorities of the Administration that are at issue as well; the Administration doesn't seem to find the money to pay for improving and expanding the US military at a time when the kinds of threats to the nation are growing.

UPDATE:
For those interested in attending NJ Tea Parties, the Record has a list of locations, including the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack and the offices of US Senator Bob Menendez and Sen. Frank Lautenberg in Newark.

UPDATE:
Twitter has running updates of various Tea Parties going on around the country, including photos and blog posts. (HT: Instapundit)