Imagine if everyone spent the last forty years watching half of the politicians talk about how awesome it is when you can one-up the government and how ineffect

Imagine if everyone spent the last forty years watching half of the politicians talk about how awesome it is when you can one-up the government and how ineffective they are... and then being surprised that there is very little good will left towards the government. It's expensive for the government to do things because 1. Everyone knows the government wastes money on everything so why not charge them a higher price. 2. Nobody feels any guilt out of keeping as much money out of the government's hands as possible (since you can spend that money more efficiently!) 3. One political party gains points whenever they make inefficient spending decisions since it reinforces their narrative about the government being inefficient. Number 3 is often solely blamed but I think it's faded somewhat compared to 1 & 2. I don't think many GOP politicians intentionally make bad financial decisions with the hope of making the government look bad - but when they make mistakes the blame they receive is generally outweighed by the general malaise over inefficient government which supports their platform. Cheating the government is so popular and widely endorsed that Trump essentially ran for president on it.