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Analysis: Is government’s role to fix economy?

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The economy needs to be fixed. On this,

Democrats and Republicans agree. They part ways over how to do it

and, specifically, what role the federal government should

play.

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“Ultimately,” President Barack Obama tells Congress, “our recovery

will be driven not by Washington, but by our businesses and our

workers. But we can help.” His argument that government has a

responsibility to do so probably doesn’t sit well with an America

that’s down on Washington.

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Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and

other Republicans competing for his job take a different tack as

they court a tea party-infused GOP electorate: The economy will

thrive, they say, if Washington simply gets out of the way. As

Perry puts it: “Smaller government, less spending, fewer

regulations.”

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At the heart of the 2012 presidential race is an issue as old as

the country itself. Is it the federal government’s responsibility

to address what ails the nation, in this case the economy? And if

so, to what degree? What is the right balance?

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History tells us that, try as we might, we may never answer those

questions; we’ve been debating them ever since the Jeffersonians

and the Federalists squabbled over states’ rights vs. a strong

central government. In the end, the Constitution assigned certain

powers to the federal government while reserving others to

states.

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But the tension in America between the purely local and a far-off

central government has never gone away. Nor, perhaps, should it in

an ever-evolving democracy.

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These days, Republicans argue for a limited government, claiming

that lower taxes and less regulation will encourage job creation.

Democrats advocate a more robust government, one that provides more

services, pours more money into the economy and, in Obama’s case,

raises taxes on the nation’s highest earners.

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“We’ve been in this pattern for decades. These are the terms of our

politics probably for the next generation, too,” said Charles

Kesler, who teaches government at Claremont McKenna College and

edited “Saving the Revolution: The Federalist Papers and the

American Founding.”

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Given the scripts, the question that ultimately determines who wins

the presidency might be this: What do Americans want from their

government?

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For many, the answer is difficult to articulate.

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Larry Parkin, a conservative who hosts a discussion group on the

Federalist Papers with the South Pinellas 9.12 Patriots in St.

Petersburg, Fla., just started collecting Social Security, which he

calls a contract with the government. The 65-year-old Coast Guard

retiree expects the country to secure the borders and protect the

nation. Beyond that, he says: “I expect them to be less intrusive

than they are. I expect them to have a limited role.”

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But he struggles to identify exactly where the line between too

much and too little government lies.

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Ask Ashley Stilos, a liberal in Fayettville, Ark., the same

question and she says one of the government’s roles is to take care

of its people, adding: “Every individual should have the right to

pursue happiness from an equal fighting ground, and that’s not the

way it is in society.”

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Is it the government’s job to make that playing field level? The

27-year-old university loan specialist says: “They have the power

to make it more equal, and it’s their responsibility to do

that.”

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Americans’ views of government have shifted in recent years,

according to an analysis of Associated Press exit polls.

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In 1992, more than half of voters thought government was doing too

many things better left to businesses and individuals. But by 2008,

a majority, for the first time, wanted government to do more to

solve the nation’s problems.

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That didn’t last long after Obama took office. In quick fashion, he

signed into law an economic stimulus plan, oversaw an auto-industry

bailout and presided over the second installment of money to keep

Wall Street afloat. A health care system overhaul came a year

later.

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By 2010, 56 percent of voters were back to saying that government

was overreaching, while just 38 percent said government should be

more active. It was the most government wary view among

independents that the exit poll has recorded, with 65 percent

saying government should do less, while 28 percent said it should

do more.

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Nowadays, people across the political spectrum seem to want very

little from Washington.

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A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll in June found that 63

percent of people think the government is doing too much, while 33

percent want it to do more. And the sentiments of independents, who

typically decide close elections, generally mirrored Americans at

large.

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But all that could change quickly, especially if these tough times

persist, with 9.1 percent unemployment, rampant foreclosures and

fear of back-to-back recessions.

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Against this backdrop, Obama is seeking re-election. And a 24-hour

span last week showed the vastly different type of leader – and

view of government – the nation will get if they choose a

Republican over him.

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No sooner did eight Republicans take the debate stage at the Ronald

Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., than did they

rail against the federal government requiring states to act a

certain way, lambast Washington overreach, and argue that fewer

regulations and lower taxes would compel businesses to hire

again.

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“They’re looking for a president that will say we’re going to lower

the tax burden on you and we’re going to lower the regulation

impact on you, and free them to do what they do best: create jobs,”

said Perry, who has staked his candidacy on a promise to make the

federal government as inconsequential as possible to people’s

lives.

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He and the others were posturing before a GOP electorate shaped by

the tea party, whose existence can be attributed in part to a

disgust by citizens over the growth of government – and federal

spending – under George W. Bush, a Republican, and Obama, a

Democrat.

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“I believe in a lot of what the tea party believes in,” Romney

said. “The tea party believes that government’s too big, taxing too

much, and that we ought to get to the work of getting Americans to

work.”

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Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann said Washington needs to stay out

of education and health issues, claiming: “We have the best results

when we have the private sector and when we have the family

involved. We have the worst results when the federal government

gets involved.” And Texas Rep. Ron Paul opposes the federal

government from having any role that isn’t explicitly laid out in

the Constitution.

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One night later, Obama pressed Congress to immediately pass a $450

billion plan to create jobs and jolt the economy, arguing that

government was at least partly responsible for fixing it, helping

Americans who are hurting and upgrading the nation’s crumbling

roads, bridges and schools.

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“This task of making America more competitive for the long haul,

that’s a job for all of us,” he said, adding: “For government and

for private companies. For states and for local communities – and

for every American citizen.”

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He countered the pitch from conservatives and the tea party that

heavily cutting government spending and eliminating a chunk of

government regulations is the best solution to the economic woes,

saying: “This larger notion that the only thing we can do to

restore prosperity is just dismantle government, refund everybody’s

money, and let everyone write their own rules, and tell everyone

they’re on their own – that’s not who we are. That’s not the story

of America.”

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And he reached back to history to try to prove his

point.

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Obama argued that its workers and entrepreneurs made America’s

economy great, the envy of the world. But he also noted that

government was responsible for the Transcontinental Railroad, the

National Academy of Sciences, the first land grant colleges, the

G.I. Bill, the nation’s highway and air systems, the public school

system, research that led to the Internet and the computer

chip.

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Americans will hear these competing visions of government for the

next 14 months before casting a vote that will offer a glimpse into

Americans views of the scope of government – a temporary clarity at

best as the debate as old as our founding rages on.

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EDITOR’S NOTE – Liz Sidoti, the political editor for The Associated

Press, has covered national politics for the AP since

2003.

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