Big Government

The term "big government" was first used in 1940 by Republican presidential candidate Wendell Willkie. It was actually a play on the words "big business"; Willkie admitted that government was needed to counteract what he called "corporate tyranny." For the next 30 years Republicans warned about big government but also cautioned about big business. That all changed in the 1970s when the government lost the people's trust on issues such as Watergate and Vietnam. And then came St. Ronnie and the rest is history.