Death of a Cliché

Be sure to check out today's column from Mark Shields:

Alan Ginsburg, a historian friend of mine, pointed out that it's been some time now since we have heard one of the most previously oft-repeated Republican applause lines — the candidate's or officeholder's solemn pledge "to run government like a business."

The reasons are obvious why this cliche has disappeared. The villains in American politics have in a single generation gone from "welfare queens in designer jeans" to "corporate welfare kings in chauffered limos," from the public spotlight on "the deserving poor" to public outrage against "the undeserving rich."

...The inconsistencies of the business world and its partisan apologists have been monumental. When profits were sky-high, corporate chiefs and the office-seekers whom they underwrote relentlessly extolled the genius of private enterprise and the untold damage any government regulation could do to it. But when profits go so far south that all the ink is red, business sings a much different tune. "Public-private partnerships " (aka bail-outs) are not only inspired, they are imperative.