paul krugman's column on the pew survey makes the following extremely puzzling assertion, which he keeps repeating:

For the conservatives who run today’s Republican Party are devoted, above all, to the proposition that government is always the problem, never the solution. For a while the American people seemed to agree; but lately they’ve concluded that sometimes government is the solution, after all, and they’d like to see more of it.

um. do you think dick cheney or albero gonzales or margaret spellings think government should be smalller? these peple are mercantilists who have presided over a huge increase in federal spending. they're police statists who have presided over a systematic and hugely expensive continuous attack on the rights of citizens. they're militarists who have vastly increased military spending. they're fans of bureaucracy who've nationalized education. now, probably if paul krugman was spending your money, he wouldn't spend it this way. but the idea that the "conservatives" who run the republican party hate government is just a laughable anachronism. no one in the whole country opposes large government; certainly no one who holds office. and indeed, it would be irrational for someone who holds office to favor smaller government, which kind of shows you why the gov only ever grows.