Paul Krugman: The Fantasy That U.S. Government Is Too Big And Too Intrusive

Friedman's metaphor is clever - and incorrect.

Government is the vehicle for advancing The Common Good - what the constitution calls "The General Welfare."

The "private sector" -- committed to the profit of individual shareholders and not The General Welfare -- is (as currently constituted) intrinsically antagonistic to The Common Good, making the rich richer and the poor poorer. 

Contemporary "conservatives" have renounced The Common Good, and are not -- as they pretend -- commitment to its realization.

The their self-seeking rationale is twofold: to screw common folk 
and to heave the poor into the waiting maw of Social Darwinism.

"Republicans Finally Admit Why They Hate Obamacare"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/06/republicans-finally-admit-why-they-hate.html

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"GOP's Anti-Medicaid Expansion Body Count, By State"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/03/gops-anti-medicare-expansion-body-count.html

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"Why Are Murderous GOP Governors Protected By The Press?"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/why-are-murderous-gop-governors.html

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"The point is that before you rage against unwarranted government interference in your life, you might want to ask why the government is interfering. Often...there is, in fact, a good reason for the government to get involved. Pollution controls are the simplest example, but not unique. Smart libertarians have always realized that there are problems free markets alone can’t solve — but their alternatives to government tend to be implausible....Of course some government interventions are unnecessary and unwise. But the idea that we have a vastly bigger and more intrusive government than we need is a foolish fantasy." Paul Krugman in The New York Times

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The Hard Central Fact Of Contemporary Conservatism

The hard, central "fact" of contemporary "conservatism" is its insistence on a socio-economic threshold above which people deserve government assistance, and below which people deserve to die. 

The sooner the better. 

Unless conservatives are showing n'er-do-wells The Door of Doom, they just don't "feel right." 

To allay this chthonic anxiety, they resort to Human Sacrifice,  hoping that spilled blood will placate "the angry gods," including the one they've made of themselves. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/09/harvard-study-45000-americans-die.html 

Having poked their eyes out, they fail to see  that self-generated wrath creates "the gods" who hold them thrall.

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-hard-central-fact-of-contemporary.html

Almost "to a man," contemporary "conservatives" have apotheosized themselves and now -- sitting on God's usurped throne -- are rabid to pass Final Judgment. 

Self-proclaimed Christians, eager to thrust "the undeserving" through The Gates of Hell, are the very people most likely to cross its threshold. 

Remarkably, none of them are tempted to believe this.