[cantankerous]

While I think you're right in principle, I think the parts of the GOP and Conservative groups pushing the "starve the beast" line have completely lost control of the message. I see the same mentality applied to all levels of government in my home state, pretty much invariably in every local area.

Basically: taxes==always bad, government==bad at doing anything (on any level), private sector==always good, thus should to pay fewer taxes year after year....so it can create jobs?

It's very troubling, especially in suburban areas where community fixtures like good school programs buttress property values, when people don't understand that their private lives are very much reliant upon well-funded, and well-run civil structures that may be completely orthogonal to their lives.