Drowning government in a bathtub

I took the title of this post from a Grover Norquist quote. 

I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub

The true power of this statement was on display in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and it was on display this last week when a steam pipe burst in New York City.  Rick Perlstein has more. 

And while you’re at it, check out the final installment of his “Foreclosing of America” series.  Rick finishes off his series by comparing the conservative and progressive approach to the housing crisis and offers a compelling vision of the progressive program. 

It would rescue millions of Americans from everyday anxiety in a way not seen since the passage of Medicare in 1965.

But it would do much more. It would spur a virtuous circle that would succor not merely millions of Americans, but 300 million Americans—every American. Spur consumption without expanding consumer debt. Preserve home values in every neighborhood. Make taking a flier on a first house or a bigger house or a nicer house a safe thing to do and not a reckless thing to do. Disincentivize corporate fleecing. Save the capital markets from volatility. Dissolve some of the inequality that comes of structurally more volatile capital markets. Save the middle class. Expand the tax base. Use that expanded tax base to vouchsafe programs—universal healthcare, affordable college—that expand the middle class, spur entrepreneurship, and take us back to the top: spurring consumption without expanding consumer debt, preserving home values, etc., etc., etc.

Virtuous circle.

That’s the way liberal government used to do it. It seized upon crises to produce solutions that closed down the possibility of future crises. Insurance. Some wise person once remarked that a government is an insurance firm with an army. Well, our insurance firm sucks. The foreclosing of America proves it. Fix it, and—listen closely, ambitious politicians—you remind people that government is there to help them. The stock of the party that people traditionally associate with government skyrockets. They stop voting for the party that affects to despise government.

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