"I spend a lot of time inveighing against regressive taxes, but I am more concerned about the impact of a shrinkage of the public sector."
Why? I heard that GW Bush was calling upon congress to raise the limit on govt. spending.
For myself I would much prefer to see the US public sector shrunk, since as far as I can see its principal activity is killing people.
I'm happy to oppose cuts where these are an attack on people's living standards, but it doesn't seem obvious to me that government expenditure is per se good. Is spending on military, police, prisons, subsidies to industry, bailouts of banks ... or currencies a good thing? Even most welfare spending is degrading in its character, representing what Marx called the institutionalisation of poverty. -- James Heartfield Sustaining Architecture in the Anti-Machine Age is available at GBP19.99, plus GBP5.01 p&p from Publications, audacity.org, 8 College Close, Hackney, London, E9 6ER. Make cheques payable to 'Audacity Ltd'. www.audacity.org