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Enough Already! Stop Trying to Grow Government

We're already too crowded with social problems; no room left

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 16, 2009 3:45 AM CDT

(Newser) – The Obama administration hasn't just misjudged the national mood by trying to push through health care reform in the middle of a recession, it's misjudged the whole era we're living in, writes Peggy Noonan. This isn't the '30s, when income tax was new and the federal government was still lean, or the '60s, when there was plenty of room to expand social programs, Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal. It's the 21st century and the administration needs to stop seeking new territory to claim.

"The national terrain is thick with federal programs, and with state, county, city and town entities and programs, from coast to coast," Noonan writes. "It's not virgin territory anymore, it's crowded." The administration seems disappointed that many don't want to join its "bold new journey" into health care reform, Noonan writes, but it's doesn't realize that many, like prominent Baucus bill critic Rep. Paul Ryan, "have seen the terrain ahead, seen that it is both crowded and costly."

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Taylor Nichols, at left, a medical student at UC Davis, argues for health care reform next to opponent Jim Heinzer during a protest outside of the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco yesterday. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin has labeled the Baucus bill "the height of fiscal irresponsibility." (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, file)

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We are a nation fully settled by government. We are well into the age of the welfare state, the age of government. We know its weight, heft and demands, know its costs both in terms of money and autonomy. - Peggy Noonan

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Enough Already! Stop Trying to Grow Government