Vintage Fine Lines....

[chiburb]

The New Deal has made such obvious sense to most Americans for the past sixty years that even Reagan always spoke with admiration of Franklin Roosevelt.

Have not most reasonable Americans come to support Social Security, rural electrification, public works to employ the unemployed guaranteed bank deposits and collective bargaining?

Are not most informed Americans appreciative of the G.I. Bill that followed World War II, Head Start, the school lunch program, food stamps, student loans and Aid to Families with Dependent Children?

Is not the nation served by such disparate progressive efforts as civil rights, aid to education, the national parks and clean air and water?

And do the great body of our people not accept the necessity of the United Nations, arms control and foreign assistance?

There is a current notion that government and the private economy are enemies. Actually, government is the essential partner of our free enterprise system. Certainly, there may be examples of needlessly complicated regulations; but without the undergirding infrastructure provided by government, the U.S. economy would collapse into chaos.

A modem economy cannot function without streets, highways, water and sewage systems, public safety, a regulated banking structure, fair working conditions, consumer safeguards and the protection of air, water and soil.
George McGovern, The Nation, Jan 1996

Thanks to Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ericzorn/chi-zornlog.story