A Good Word for Government

Ben Stein, a Commerce Department economist and a Federal Trade Commission lawyer before he became a writer, actor and quiz show host, really gets it when it comes to government and its place in this year's presidential election. Here's an excerpt from a piece he wrote Sunday for the New York Times:

If my poor old memory doesn’t fail me, the endless investigations of waste, fraud and abuse turn up pretty small potatoes in a federal budget approximating $2.4 trillion. And even if earmarks were totally wasteful, I read that they totaled $18 billion last year. Not pennies, for sure, but a tiny blemish on a federal budget roughly 150 times that sum.

And he finishes with this:

I know that it’s all just politics and that politicians will say a lot to be elected. But it’s good to know the truth, too. The government is just a lot of men and women. Most of them are working hard, trying to do their best and not stealing anything. Most are modestly paid, and sometimes they wear uniforms, carrying M-4s and risking their lives for us.