That’s the subject of the lead op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal, by Arthur Brooks and Paul Ryan.
They refer to polling done last year, asking people whether they prefer “larger government with more services and higher taxes or smaller government with fewer services and lower taxes?” Back in 2009, 69 percent indicated a preference for the latter. I’d bet it’s higher now. But note the misleading formulation — a trade-off between taxes and “services.” The fact of the matter is that government spends most of its revenue not on anything that could be called a “service” but rather on giveaways to politically potent interest groups. How, for example, is the continuing gusher of federal money into the twin boondoggles of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a “service”?
Toward the end of their piece, Brooks and Ryan suggest that the reason why voters are deserting Obama is that they are “catching on to the scam.” I think they’re right. For generations, what Angelo Codevilla calls “the ruling class” got away with electoral deception, promising lots of conspicuous goodies to people and keeping the costs hidden. That old black magic doesn’t seem to be working so well any more.
