Why We Need Government:

Ronald Reagan wanted to get government out of our lives, or more precisely, out of business. The idea sounded appealing in 1980, with Richard Nixon clearly in everybody's memory. Nixon set the CIA and FBI to investigating every person he thought might be his political enemy, and that included just about everyone. States and even local governments did their best to follow his lead, as those of us who had our phones illegally tapped can attest.

So when Ronny Rayguns ran on a less government is better platform, people bought into the idea. But what has the result been?

For one thing, government sponsored drug research has been diminished. Nowadays, drug companies themselves spend more money to fund research than the government does. Sounds good, right? After all, they are the folks who stand to profit the most, so why shouldn't they pay for the research?

Let's look at how this actually works. When you go to the doctor and he or she prescribes a drug for you to take, how does the doctor know which drug will work for you?

The doctor learns about drugs from one of two sources: Either a drug salesperson informs the doctor, or the doctor reads about the drug in an article published in a medical journal.

The conflict of interest speaks for itself in the first situation. Prior to Reagan, medical journals like the New England Journal of Medicine is where good doctors found relevant information about new drugs.

But beginning during the Reagan information, the government slowed its funding of independent research. Now the drug companies themselves fund the bulk of research, and they often even provide co-authors on the published papers.

And the result of this practice? How about 83,000 heart attacks as the result of doctors prescribing one drug alone taken by diabetes patients following the publication of research funded by GlaxoSmithKline.

(Read the Washington Post special investigative article here.)

Like you, I don't want the government tapping my phone line or reading my mail or keeping a record of my financial transactions. But when Republicans tell you less government is best, ask them, "For whom?"

We learned during the Nixon years to follow the money, always follow the money.