[finnbow]

Good post, Ed. This "overtaxed" notion is, at least in part, an outgrowth of the "Starve the Beast" ideology put forth by His Holiness, Ronald Reagan. Cut revenue flow to government (i.e., taxes) and government programs/expenditures will be forced to shrink. They figured out the first part (cutting taxes), but never even tried the second (reducing spending). What resulted is a widely held belief that we can have all the government we want, but we don't need to pay for it.

The "poster child" pork projects (e.g., bridges to nowhere) have helped perpetuate the myth that tinkering around the edges on government spending will get us where we need to go in terms of fiscal responsibility. As fiscally irresponsible as the Dem's are, they are paragons of virtue and truth when compared to the perpetrators of the big lie being foisted upon the unwashed masses (e.g., the Tea Partiers).