Public Sector Reinvestment

I'm watching election coverage on MSNBC, and Chris Matthews and Pat Buchanan just got into it a little bit over whether or not the next president is going to be able to substantially reinvest in the public sector. It wasn't a particularly developed debate, but it was sort of entertaining to me that Matthews said that the election was coming down to a choice between building up the public sector and chopping it down. I thought that was funny because the state of the federal government hasn't exactly been the topic of heated or nuanced debate in this general election. Last night, as Obama was reeling off the kinds of service that would make students eligible for funding for college, he didn't mention federal or state government service at all, and he repeated his mantra of smarter rather than bigger government. McCain and Obama may disagree on whether the economy requires addressing the budget with a hatchet or a scalpel, but they'd both like to see government get more effective. Debates over big government and starve the beast have not exactly defined this campaign.