It's always been a wonderment to me that so many voters buy the bullshits that government should be run like a business. If that were the case, then taxes should be sky-fcking-high as government uses its monopoly power to maximize revenues and profits while simukltaneously choking off services.

Republicans have, admittedly, gotten the second part of this down pat--choking off services (see Malkin's latest whine about how the Forest Service's lack of funding has crippled fire-fighting efforts)--but can't bring themselves to implement the first part.

Government isn't "like" anything else - at least, not enough for whatever analogy is being drawn to have any explanatory power. It's not like a business - the point of government is not to make money (it can make as much as it likes, whenever it wants to!). It's not like a family - the President isn't Big Daddy and the people don't eventually grow up and leave the nest (also, again, the government can print money if it wants more; it doesn't have to work an extra shift at MegaloMart or whatever to make ends meet).

I don't know why this is so difficult to understand. Probably it's not, and it's just that various liars have an angle they're playing by foisting these whoppers off on people.

Ah, but it sounds like a good thing... efficiency! (This means firing workers to afford more stock options for executives.) Innovation! (This means: a) industrial espionage, b) buying out the competition, c) suing the shit out of the competition to drain their cash reserves, or d) some combination of all three.) Dynamic management! (This means that the board of directors and the CEO are cronies and are driving the company into the ground.) Maximizing human potential! (This means threatening the domestic workforce with offshoring until everyone is thoroughly demoralized and submissive.) Cost-benefit analysis! (This means the leadership will drive a good idea into the ground because a) it won't make ridiculous profits in this quarter, or b) the leadership will kill the idea or underfund it to death because it's actually sensible, or c) no way we're doing this unless the CFO's morally defective brother-in-law gets the contract, or d) some combination of all three.)

We've already seen what happened when George Bush wanted to run it like a business. And the business it began to look like was organized crime.