The big gov't crowd

NY Post ^ | September 26, 2010 | Steven Malanga

[Scanian]

The Tea Party movement may have arisen to protest rising deficits and increasing federal control of everything from health care to the auto industry -- but the big-government coalition it's fighting wasn't born in Washington. The federal agenda that the movement is now battling to overturn originated in state capitals like Albany, Trenton and Sacramento.

This agenda has been promoted with growing success in the last 50 years by a self-interested coalition of public-sector unions and social-advocacy groups that benefit from bigger government, higher taxes and more public control of the economy. Merely "taking back" Congress on Election Day won't stop the relentless rise of this coalition, which has at its disposal enormous resources.

President Obama is an expression of the big-government coalition, and his election to the White House was a signature event in its rise to power. He began his public life as a Chicago community activist heading a nonprofit funded heavily by government to organize neighborhood residents into a political force.

As a young college graduate immersed in the world of tax-bankrolled activism, Obama learned a lesson that many other activists also absorbed: To protect the funding that created and nourished their groups, community organizers like him had to head into politics.

[SF_Redux]

community organizers like him had to head into politics.....with out ever having to prove he is a legal citizen

[screaminsunshine]

Severing the umbilical cord will be very traumatic.

[Wonder Warthog]

Does Mr. Malanga think that the Tea Party is only scrutinizing national elections???

[RoadTest]

“This agenda has been promoted with growing success in the last 50 years by a self-interested coalition of public-sector unions and social-advocacy groups that benefit from bigger government, higher taxes and more public control of the economy.”

That’s much like the situation in Venezuela right now.

[Alberta's Child]

I realize the author used "Albany" in this article in reference to New York's state capitol, but New York City might be the most egregious example of what he discusses in this article.