I was reading Congessional Anecdotes by Paul Boller last night and I caught this bit that does a good job of articulating my problem with many of the arguments made by conservatives :

One of South Carolina Senator Earnest F. Hollings’ favorite stories was about the veteran who returned from Korea and went to college on the GI Bill; then he bought his house with an FHA loan; saw his kids born in a VA hospital; started a business with an SBA; got electricity from TVA and, then, water from a project funded by the EPA. His children participated in the school-lunch program and made it through college, with the help of government-guaranteed student loans. His parents retired to a farm on their Social Security checks, getting electricity from the REA and the soil tested by the USDA. When the father became ill, his life was saved with a drug developed through NIH and his family saved from financial ruin by Medicare. The veteran drove to work on the interstate, moored his boat in a channel dredged by army engineers, and, when floods hit, took an Amtrak to Washington to apply for disaster relief. He also spent some of his time there enjoying the exhibits in the Smithsonian museums. Then one day he wrote his Congressman and angry letter complaining about high taxes and heavy government spending. The government, he said, echoing President Reagan, “should get off his back.”