Big Government Interests

Politico reports on an interview aired on Meet the Press:

CNBC's Rick Santelli on Sunday compared the budget crises affecting state and federal balance sheets to a Sept. 11-type attack on the nation.

"If the country is ever attacked as it was on 9/11, we all respond with a sense of urgency," Santelli said in a roundtable discussion on NBC's "Meet the Press" about the Wisconsin labor protests. "What’s going on on balance sheets throughout the country is the same type of attack.”

In response a commenter wrote: “Rick Santelli is an apologist for big corporate interests who haven't paid taxes and Republicans who have avoided paying fair taxes for generations while Beijing collects the interest on our debt.”

This sentiment is common among those who condemn attempts to reign in government spending and control the near monopoly efforts of public sector unions to set the conditions for their own generous benefits packages in ways that are unheard of in the private sector.

I find it fascinating that “big corporate interests” is always used in a pejorative sense among those on the Left. Why are they so angry at “big corporate interests” and so sanguine about “big government interests?”

After all, virtually every state government employs far more people than its largest resident corporation. Government exhibits a level of mind-numbing bureaucracy that sometimes works at counter-purposes to its citizens. Government extracts money directly from taxpayers whether they use its services or not. Government is rife with fraud and abuse, wasting millions if not billions of dollars that could otherwise be pumped directly into more productive economic endeavors.

And yet, corporations are evil … why? Because they sometimes earn a profit? Because they gainfully employ citizens who might otherwise require taxpayer assistance? Because they are the economic engine that drives this country?

To be clear, we need government at the local, state, and federal level. But do we need a government that is ever-expanding, inefficient, and downright rapacious? Many of us in the Center have begun to say “no” to big government interests. I have to wonder why those who are anti-corporate don’t think likewise.