[achompas]

The more recent Roosevelt HAD to grow the government--they were the only demanders during the Great Recession.

He also stuck us with Social Security and Medicare, which are the main drivers behind the intergenerational debt we're facing now.

So, I mean, big government isn't always the best.

[nanairo]

Why are SS and Medicare the biggest drivers? Didn't Clinton leave you with a surplus? And didn't he have to pay for SS and Medicare too? What's changed since then and now?

Anyway I am not arguing that big government are always the best. I am arguing that big government sometimes are. Or to put it another way I am arguing that SMALL government isn't always the best.

[achompas]

I'm confused, what does Clinton have to do with these programs? Worth noting that Bush Jr. signed a prescription drug bill that will cost $550 billion between 2006 and 2015 [1].

SS and Medicare are programs intended for older people which are funded by current workers. As time has passed and SS/Medicare eligibility has increased, more SS/Medicare taxes from current workers are paying for fewer people's benefits. This problem has worsened as baby boomers have reached retirement age--we've never seen SS/Medicare enrollment like this before.

Point being: my generation is paying a large chunk of taxes that it will probably never benefit from, as SS/Medicare will likely occupy too large a portion of the budget and would thus need to be scaled back (or closed down).

[1] http://www.cms.gov/ReportsTrustFunds/downloads/tr2009.pdf

[MC27]

That suggests his successors weren't very good at finishing the job he started. It's only natural for governments to become more and more corrupt as decades pass. When someone like that appears on the scene and reboots the system, their work should be acknowledged and refined before the corruption kicks in again.

[achompas]

This isn't a matter of corruption--it's an issue of public choice (or public economics, whichever you prefer).

What politician would scale back SS/Medicare when retirees are one of the largest voting blocks in America?

Governments also don't necessarily experience more corruption over time. Just look at overthrown dictatorships. If you said democratic governments, like the US, I'd agree with you, since the accumulation of wealth shifts power around.