Federal Gridlock

A stopped clock is right twice a day but that's not an excuse not to fix it.

I don't think anybody really wants small government. Our Canadian Conservatives (who are slightly to the left of your liberals) typically want the government to do "more with less". That's like saying people should feed two families with half the food budget - it makes no sense in any other context, yet conservatives think it makes sense for government.

Your chart shows a lot of "doing too much" and a lot of "should do more" which is pretty much what I was saying. If the government could do more with less (taxation), more people would be asking for more.

Reminds me of a British TV show, Yes, Minister. A new government comes up with a plan to reduce the size of government - Step One: Hire 100 new civil servants to decide which jobs can be cut.

Yes, that's what I'm saying. It isn't, "Most of us (U.S.) think the government is doing too much," as you claimed in Message 30. It's, "Most of us (Republicans) think the government is doing too much."Reminds me of an editorial I read in the 70s: Democrats think everybody in the world wants to be an American; Republicans want to make everybody in the world an American. Now you seem to think only Republicans are Americans.

I recommend disbanding the armed forces.

It's a slim majority at best, and not always a majority on your chart. The fact is that a lot of people want the government to do more, so claiming that "most" want it to do less is a bit weasely.

It is weasely to claim that most Americans want the government to do less when it isn't always a majority at all and when it is a majority it's only a majority of Republicans. Your "facts" are misleading.If you had said that a majority of right-wing nuts want the government to do less, I wouldn't have disputed the "fact" - though I suspect that many of them are just spouting the party line and don't really understand the implications of what they're saying.

Not in 1993. Not in 2002. And there are half a dozen points on your graph where the number falls below 50%. Claiming a blanket majority is definitely weasely. Yes, if a man hits his thumb with a hammer, screams, swears a blue streak and claims it doesn't hurt, I know he doesn't mean what he says. And if somebody claims he wants lower taxes but he also wants more police and more military spending, I know he doesn't mean what he says.I truly am The Amazing Ringo.