For years, Republicans have been campaigning on lower taxes and limited government. They do seem sincere about cutting taxes at least for corporations and the very wealthy. But when it comes to limited government, I guess it depends on which government youre limiting.
When Republicans last controlled the White House, the US House of Representatives and the Senate, they limited the Environmental Protection Agency, the Dept. of Education, the Dept. of Energy and the FDA as well as limiting the regulation of the oil and gas industry, the insurance industry, the financial industry, commodities, and Medicare.
At the same time, Republicans created the gargantuan agency of Homeland Security. They also determined that it was the governments role to police the interaction between a woman and her doctor, to invade the privacy of our citizens, to limit who could marry, and to suspend the laws of habeus corpus so it could detain citizens indefinitely without right to trial.
Now Republicans are pushing their limited government ideas at the state level as never before. In Arizona, they’re trying their best to destroy public schools, take health care away from the poor and force everyone to carry guns. In Wisconsin, theyre limiting the voices and bargaining rights of government workers. In Vermont, the governor limited the images of laborers in the Labor Dept. And in Michigan, the GOP-led state government has literally usurped the governance of Benton Harbor in order to give a city park to a corporate developer so the developer can turn it into a golf course for the very wealthy.
It appears that Republicans really want a government limited to enforcing their narrow-minded values and increasing benefits for corporations and the very wealthy.