"...big government, small government..."

[SHRED]

DEAN BAKER: Well, you know, I think this whole debate over big government has always been silly, because it’s not about big government. It’s about who your friends are. And in this case, you know, the friends of the Republicans are defense military contractors, so they don’t want to see them cut. I mean, you know, this whole notion of big government, small government—one side’s for one, one side’s for the other—it’s literally nonsense.

I’ll just give you, you know, one very simple example. We spend somewhere close to $300 billion a year on prescription drugs, because the government gives drug companies patent monopolies. I’d get arrested, you know, if I tried to produce, you know, Pfizer’s drugs. They have a patent monopoly. They get to charge whatever they want. If you didn’t have those monopolies, we’d spend about a 10th as much, somewhere around $30 billion. So that difference is close to $250 billion a year. That’s not entered on the budget, but the government is requiring us to spend extra money for drugs. That’s really big government, but the Republicans never, ever talk about that, because the pharmaceutical industry are big contributors. So we aren't arguing about big government or small government; we’re arguing about who gets the money.

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/12/14/dean_baker_the_biggest_myth_in




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[handmade34]

1. good interview

'they' manipulate with words...

"...you have people like Senator DeMint running around, "It’s a spending problem, blah blah." They just have to look at the numbers. We did not have a spending problem. We haven’t gone on some huge spending spree. The Congressional Budget Office projected that the deficits through 2009, '10, ’11, ’12, they are projected to be about 1.5 percent of GDP. We know how long you can run deficits of 1.5 percent GDP; we could say it exactly: forever. The debt-to-GDP ratio is falling. The reason why the deficit ballooned was very simple: The housing bubble burst; that crashed the economy. Right now the deficits are supporting the economy. People are yelling about the big deficits. Maybe they know this, maybe they don't. What they want is slower economic growth and higher unemployment, because you could love the private sector to death, but you aren’t going to see more demand come out of the private sector just because you love it. So, the reality is, the deficit is supporting the economy right now because the private sector has collapsed..."

[SHRED]

2. Regarding the excerpt I posted

I understand Mr. Baker's sentiment here but there isn't a huge clear line on defense industry spending favoring R's. There is plenty of big money influence on both parties from the defense and pharmaceutical sectors according to Open Secrets but yes...they do favor the R's.

http://www.opensecrets.org/influence/index.php

[GoCubsGo]

3. Yep, that massive elephant in the room.

The largest employer in my area is the Savannah River Site. Only a fraction are actually employed by the Dept. of Energy. The vast majority work for the private contractors that operate the place. Most of these idiots are "small government" republicans. When I point it out to them that they wouldn't have their high-paying jobs if it were not for the government and the taxpayers, they just stare at me in disbelief. They are unable to comprehend that fact. How do we even fight this battle when one can't even get through to the dummies who continually elect the likes of John Boehner, Joe Wilson, Lindsay Graham, and all these other purveyors of this nonsense?

[SHRED]

4. so true

These so-called "private" contractors are being paid with 100% government money.


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