TigerBill's DrumBeat Community Forums for Free Expert Advice on Drums and Percussion.

Again, you are either a liar or a fool. YOU ARE A FAN OF BIG GOVERNMENT! You proved it with your vote, at least twice. The difference between you and I is what we think the legitimate role of government should be. You see the role of government as an oppressor, a war state and a police state. You think the role of government is to invade foreign countries, under false pretences, to steal their resources, for the benefit of giant multinational corporations which have no loyalty to America whatsoever. You support an American military budget that exceeds the military budget of all other nations of the world combined. You think the role of government is to illegally spy on its citizens. You think the role of government is to incarcerate citizens for exercising their liberty when that conduct does not comport with your notion of religious morality. You think the role of government is to defend itself at the expense of the personal liberty of its citizens. You think the role of government is to protect the profits of giant multinational corporations against the insterests of public health, safety and welfare. You have proven your position by your vote.

I think the role of government it to serve the public. The role of government is to protect the interests of public health, safety, welfare and liberty against the abuses of commerce, and to protect personal liberty at the expense of the government. Those are policy choices that have to be elected by our representatives. You hate the government because you are brainwashed by the relentles, ubiquitous propaganda of the corporatist, fascist owned main stream media to do so. The corporatists have a monumental financial interst to lie to you - to obtain your compliance in neutering the governments power to regulate them for your protection. You have no idea in how many ways the government protects you from the abuses of commercial exploitation.

It comes as no surprise to me that teabagging, wingnut, Fox Noise junkies are oblvious to the essential role of government in their lives. Here is a very short list of the benefits of government in a constitutional democracy:
- Your food is safe to eat and affordable,
- Your water is safe to drink and affordable,
- Your electric power is reliable, safe and affordable (ask a Californian how free market capitalist utilities is working out for them),
- Your car is safe to drive,
- All of the products you buy must pass safety regulations, and are warranteed against defects (unless they are imported from China which has no such safety regulatory system, hmmmm),
- Your streets are safe to drive on,
- The contractor who built your house is licensed and competent,
- Your house and the structures you work in and do business in are safe to inhabit,
- The medicines you take are safe and effective,
- The doctor who treats you is licensed and competent,
- The lawyer who represents you is licensed and competent,
(But, you would prefer to leave these protections to the forces of free market capitalism, right).
- The bank where you keep your money is solvent and, if not, your deposits are insured,
- The air you breath and ground water are clean (or they would be, but for 8 years of corrupt Bush/Cheney energy policies),
- The public school system is the envy of the world (despite 30 years of republican efforts to dismantle it), and is the primary factor in creating the largest, most economically powerful middle class in history (despite republican efforts to dismantle the middle class in order to create domestic slave labor for commerce),
- Laborers have a right to combine and force commerce to bargain with them as a group, another major factor in the creation of the American middle class (in the past 30 years, republicans have succeeded in largely dismantling organized labor),
- Child labor is prohibited (what an infringement on your freedom, right, 777Dumb?),
- You can send a letter from Key West to Seattle for $0.44, and know it will arrive,
- Prior to the corruption of the government by the international banks, it was the crime of usury in all 50 states to charge exhorbitant interest rates (but, thanks to the republicans, all such state laws that criminalized usury are now preempted by federal law that affords no such consumer protection),
- Giant, multinational corporations are forbidden from combining and monopolizing a market, killing competition, and exploiting consumers,
- Descrimination in employment on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, age and disability is prohibited (ah, 777Dumb longs for the good ol' days),
- If you have a dispute with your neighbor, or with General Electric, you have a court system in which you can force them to answer your allegations of wrongdoing on a level playing field rather than resort to violence, or have no remedy at all (naturally, 777Dumb would prefer the more traditional form of dispute resolution - dueling).

Those are just the tip of the iceberg of all of the benefits the government provides to its citizens that wingnuts and teabaggers are utterly oblivious to.

As for the country being broke, that is the plan of, and the doing of, the republicans, who have intentionally, purposefully run the government into the ground, for the benefit of giant multinational corporations who don't want to be regulated - the republicans you voted for, again and again.