Wednesday, July 18, 2012 Because of the things we do together How much do you suppose one of these highway systems would cost on eBay? Republicans love to argue that success in America is only about individual initiative. They say government should simply get out of the way. But the fact is that it is impossible to succeed without the supports that collective action provide, in other words, things only government can do. Thus President Obama said recently that "we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because of the things we do together." To which presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney responded, "to say something like that is not just foolishness, it's insulting to every entrepreneur, every innovator in America." He than rattled off a list of successful businessmen including Apple's Steve Jobs , McDonald's' Ray Kroc , and Henry Ford . To be fair, he cited the importance of the services government provides. But he also noted that they're funded by taxpayers, adding, "the taxpayers pay for government... It's not like government just provides those to all of us and we say, 'Oh, thank you government for doing those things.'" What the hell is he talking about? Obviously taxpayers pay for the things government does on their behalf. Obviously citizens elect representatives to do the things that cannot be done by "the people" in their collective capacity. Those representatives would be the government. It's a crazy thought, but Republicans take great exception to the idea that government