God forbid Government do things the People like

Hilzoy at Political Animal finds this conservative Cato Institute analysis on the impact of Obama and the Democrats passing national health care. It sums up the difference between the two parties succinctly:

Passing Obamacare would be like performing exactly the opposite function of turning people into investors. Whereas the Investor Class is more conservative than the rest of America, creating the Obamacare Class would pull America to the left. Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute, who first found that wonderful Markowitz quote, puts it succinctly in a recent blog post: "Blocking Obama's health plan is key to the GOP's survival."

In other words, a comprehensive health care plan would prove incredibly popular with the public and they'd credit the Democrats. Good policy makes good politics.

And the GOP can't have that. It's bad policy all the time apparently. "Oh My God, it might work, we best kill it!"

Truly, the bottom line per this analysis is that the Republican version of the purpose of government is to hurt the people it governs.

Might be nice if we could actually have a proper public debate on these two theries and see which one people want.

The Government that makes your life better, or the one that makes you miserable.

It's quite a policy slogan.