Less Government, More Effectiveness

Here's ex-Clinton administration official Bruce Reed in a post on his Slate blog, "The Has-Been:"

In 1994, Republicans took over the Congress with one goal foremost in mindâ€"to turn Americans against government. Twelve years later, they've succeeded, although not the way they intended. A new CNN poll finds that 54 percent of Americans think government tries to do too much, while only 37 percent think government should do more. And to put government in its place, they're going to vote … Democrat.

That's a pretty shocking statistic, and a strong indication that this election has become a referendum on government's effectiveness. If the Democrats end up with control of Congress, they won't be in an enviable position. As the Washington Post reports today, Democrats are promising to add tens of billions of dollars in spending for defense, homeland security and education. But that only addresses the 37 percent of bigger government types who presumably make up the Democratic base. The folks in the too-much-government camp, on the other hand, don't actually want government to stop doing what it's doing, they just want it done better, and they don't want to pay any more for it. They want, in short, what Clinton promised them in the whole reinventing government crusade: a government that "works better and costs less." And that's the toughest of challenges to meet.