Dean Baker makes an excellent point in this article. Republicans love big government when it redistributes income upward. They hate big government that redistributes income downward. The best example is the defense budget. About 50% of government discretionary spending is on defense. Republicans love this aspect of big government. It redistributes income to defense contractors. They also resist any efforts to end subsidies to their favorite industries, and they love government regulations and laws which protect favored industries from competition. Government patent and copyright protections, which reduce competition, are zealously protected by Republicans. Government enforcement of anti-trust laws, however, is usually resisted by Republicans.
The takeaway from this post is that the real political battle is not over the size of government. It is about setting the rules of the game which determine the benefactors from government spending. Democrats have been put in the awkward position of altering the rules of the income distribution game that have been set by Republicans. They need to be more actively involved in setting the rules.
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