We may not have as big a problem if the private contractors who got their "job creating" tax cuts and moved offshore would stop overcharging the federal government to finance their executives' multiple mansions and wasteful out of touch elitist lifestyles. Companies could move back to the US long before the problem comes in the next decade and employ Americans now who can have money in their pockets to spend in the community bring money into local businesses who can then expand and hire more local people. The contractors and local businesses can then pay their part of our needed revenue to improve needed community infrastructure.

I don't think people "hate government." Some people "hate" BIG Government for the obvious reason that unlimited government has unlimited power over the individual – and usually, unless they are very dependent, citizens tend not to like that. It's much easier for Big Government to overtax citizens; to deny problems such as economic realities; to make deals behind closed doors, excluding the public; to push ideological agendas that few agree with; and to lie with impunity.

Also, Big Government v Small Government philosophy has very little to do with the size of the population being governed.

The Supreme Court's ironically named Citizen's United case opened up the floodgates for buying up government and the media that doesn't fully inform us. Often we get half-truths about what is happening. Efficient government is what we should go for. Often regulations are written by well financed organizations like ALEC that benefit big business and hurt small businesses who then dislike regulations.

Also for example before New Orleans, FEMA was working well cleaning up after a Florida hurricane, then someone who didn't know what they were doing was appointed head of FEMA and handled things poorly in New Orleans thus it was another reason that "proves" government doesn't do things right. People also don't know the history of private industry abuses as to why we have FEMA, the FDA and other agencies.

And often, particularly during the last two years, regulations (end runs around the legitlative process) are written by ideologues who lack both common sense and experience with reality/big picture. Examples abound. Alleged "private industry abuses" are far, far fewer than alleged "public interest" abuses perpetrated by Big Government. FEMA is a joke. FDA is getting to be a joke. Countless other "trusted" government agencies are jokes. "Trusted government agencies"- "Trusted" government agencies, surely you jest– can be and usually are code for busybody nanny types which most of us are sick of.

An old English judge once said: "Necessitous men are not free men." Liberty
requires opportunity to make a living - a living decent according to the
standard of the time, a living which gives man not only enough to live by,
but something to live for.

A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete
control over other people's property, other people's money, other people's
labor - other people's lives. For too many of us life was no longer free;
liberty no longer real; men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness.

Against economic tyranny such as this, the American citizen could appeal
only to the organized power of government. The royalists of the economic
order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the
government, but they have maintained that economic slavery was nobody's
business. They granted that the government could protect the citizen in his
right to vote, but they denied that the government could do anything to
protect the citizen in his right to work and his right to live.

If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place,
he must have equal opportunity in the market place. Voting for and supporting Unions helps with democracy in the workplace of large companies instead of supporting for the Right to Work for Less state laws.

Chris- a number of us who have been covering this race have been trying to figure this out. Why did Professor Wade say he was voting for John McCain?

I had Chris for two of the four classes that he has taught at George Mason. I can tell you that the subject of voting never came up in class because it was not relevant to any of the subject matter. We discussed economics, strategy, leadership and project management. Also, we never discussed being opportunistic because it was not part of the subject matter.Chris also did not start teaching at GMU until the summer of 2009. I had no idea who Ben Tribbett was but after some research, I discovered that he is someone who has attacked Chris since he announced his candidacy and is an advisor to the Oleszek campaign. It is clear to me that these comments from a "student" are fabrications intended to discredit Chris.

The Chris that I know was a very good teacher, which is why I signed up for the second class. He cares about the success of his students. He has gotten me job interviews and I know that he has done the same for other students. I took his class two years ago. We stay in touch and have become friends. I hope that the voters of Braddock see the Chris that I know. He is a genuine person, who cares about his community.

I was answering Fairfax Resident who thinks all government agencies such as FEMA are a joke. I was giving examples. The pattern is simple. Government is screwed up because elected politicians' campaigns are financed (being bought off) by wealthy elites running phony grassroots organizations that popped up since 5 Supreme Court Justices out of the 9 allowed this to happen with their Citizen's United case ruling.

Some want to privatize everything by claiming government can't do anything right. They appointing either incompetent chairmen or people who cut funding and staff to make the agencies look like a joke.

They also eliminated Civics lessons in school and replaced it with teaching to the standardized tests which keeps people ignorant of how our government has worked and can still work.

Generally, people are too busy working multiple low wage jobs to check candidates' voting records, who are their largest campaign donors, how these donors' benefit and if it helps or hurts the community.

Too often people vote for the person they hear of the most, usually the incumbent and not check them out. People usually don't get active in local committees that choose the candidates and work on the talking points for the primary election or share information with other on who might not be perfect but is better. Talking points can be designed to frustrate most people so they don't participate in meetings, and just don't vote. Usually only 30 percent of our population votes.

Yeah, being a "strong McCain-Palin supporter" and then running as a "Democrat" is certainly "thinking outside the box!" LOL

There are Republicans that I met who seemed nice and fair about many things, but the whole notion that reducing government and increasing corporate control that most Republicans promote is not an options anymore than total government control of everything. Theories on paper (or in computer) don't always work out in practice. There is a difference between streamlining government and handing it over to unelected private companies to control every thing. It was already tried in Italy and Germany to try to resolve their countries depression before World War II. It ended up with the few in charge prospering while the rest suffered. There was name calling and blame shifting coming from these corporate executives put in charge to shift the blame away from them.