One can scarcely escape the rightwing media chatter these days excoriating the 'dysfunctional' Government being the root cause of of all that has gone wrong in America today. The air waves are thick with plain falsehoods,scaremongering and downright race-baiting employed by the self-appointed custodians of the star spangled Republic. Let me trot out a few incontrovertible facts about the "Big Government", that escaped the attention of these amnesiac crowd. Most of them are simply ignorant or will not acknowledge the fact that in terms of offering its citizens the basic infrastructure to conduct a hassle-free existence the American Government is in a class apart by itself. The Government,no matter what your political or ideological persuasion may be, has created a seamless and transparent interface between itself and its citizens. Low level corruption of the petty sort,palm-greasing to get licenses, supplicating and genuflecting in awe of government functionaries to get what is entitled as one's privilege is virtually non-existent, making the life of an ordinary Joe on the street free of the labyrinthine coils of red tape.

All the fifty states right down to the county level has a public library and a functioning public school system with clean facilities free for anyone whether citizen or not. The Interstate highway system conceived and brilliantly laid out during the Eisenhower years is the lifeblood of the nation linking the country from the remotest mountains in Alaska down to the tip of the Southern State of Florida all the way into the islands of Keywest. None of this was funded by private capital, may sound like an ideal socialist state , well if it qualifies for one since none apparently exists any where else in the world, yes, ironically, may be so. The Public libraries offers free Wi-Fi, plenty of computers which anyone with a free membership can use along with subsidized printing,scanning and copying facilities. The Public school systems and community colleges are under severe budget constraints mostly caused by the Wall Street shenanigans and their political acolytes. Even the internet was originally conceived within the womb of the Department of Defense as a secure means to effectively communicate amongst the defense personell before it landed into the domain of the private sector.

Social security benefits with Medicare was one of the most path breaking social safety nets instituted after the Great Depression to protect vulnerable citizens who fell victim to the financial chicanery of the Wall street. Again none of this came about through the private sector on the contrary dirty tricks were employed by the Wall street to undermine the flow of funds into public welfare. Now attempts are afoot by the Tea party brigade and the insane Right wing cost cutters to privatize Medicare for the elderly leaving them totally at the mercy of market forces to deliver benefits which we all know with 50 million uninsured, and still counting, will be a recipe for an unmitigated social disaster. Most of the vitriol spewed against the "Big Government" has been the result of a systematic and relentless misinformation campaign paid for by Corporate loyalists posing as the defenders of citizens' right. The Media has looked askance as is their wont.

A counter narrative extolling the largess the American government bestowed upon its citizens despite its imperfections, needs to gather steam in order to debunk the flawed claims advanced by a group of bean counters whose only mantra is that the invisible hand of the Market will sort out the problems by itself. Well, we all know where that invisible hand led us- all the way up to the cliff and beyond.