It’s been twelve years since the “Contract With America” and twenty-six since Reagan rode to office proclaiming that “government is the problem”, yet Americans are still waiting for the miracle to occur. Aren’t lower taxes supposed to create jobs? Aren’t lax environmental regulations supposed to make the air and water cleaner? As I wrote a while back :

“When a politician talks about ‘deregulating’ something, what he really means is getting rid of the laws that 99% of the time exist for a damn good reason…For a party that prides itself on its common sense, [Republicans] seem smitten with the retarded idea that the only thing that stands in the way of corporate titans keeping the environment clean (to cite one example) are the laws that mandate the very thing they’re refusing to do. Would the Republicans be willing to apply this same standard of logic to laws that don’t excite their base or reap profits for their benefactors?”

At what point are people going to wake up and realize that all the promises of a leaner, more responsive government are complete bullshit?

(Originally posted at Firedoglake)