Wood,
I think that folks who tend to believe that the solution to most societal issues is more government, usually forget to ask what the taxes and regulations are doing to the middle class.  RARELY is that middle class asked whether they are OK with having some more of their income taken away and given to others, or to programs that seem to offer no benefit to them.  And because they are not asked, or worse, are shouted down when they dare to object ("How COULD anybody be SO cold as to not want to give cell phones away to the poor?"), that middle class is shrinking, or feeling ever more "used" by society and the political parties.

Taking money away from my family to pay for the cell phones, the medical insurance (etc.) reduces my ability to provide the same for my own family, or if I'm a small business, for my employees.

I'm not saying all such programs are bad.  But neither do I believe that the answer is to continue to cripple one segment of society, in favor of another.