I mostly agre with Ezra Klein’s comment on David Brooks’ column today: what Brooks wants from our government is awfully close to what Barack Obama seems to want too, if only Republicans would agree to ante up the money for it. It’s not a 100% match or anything, but really, it’s silly to pretend that both Obama and Republicans are equally feckless about all this stuff.
But this passage really drew my attention:
The Tea Parties are right about the unholy alliance between business and government that is polluting the country. It’s time to drain the swamp by simplifying the tax code and streamlining the regulations businesses use to squash their smaller competitors.
Say what? Is Brooks seriously pretending that the motivating anger of the tea parties comes from the fact that government is too friendly to big business? The tea partiers hate Obama and they hate Obamacare, but they like big business just fine and so do their funders. If you’re really looking for partners in a crusade to prevent government regulation from favoring the interests of existing business incumbents, you’re more likely to find them in the radical lefty community than in the radical tea party community. Where does Brooks get this stuff?
