big government

See also: Big Government

English

Alternative forms

Noun

big government (uncountable)

  1. (chiefly US, politics, sometimes capitalized) Governance that consists of large-scale programs, numerous departments and employees, and that entails substantial spending, especially liberal or left-wing governance which emphasizes social entitlements and regulation, and that is considered intrusive by some citizens, especially by conservatives or right-wingers
    • 1940 March 18, “Life on the Newsfronts of the World: Big Government”, in Life, retrieved 13 December 2011, page 26:
      Because he is liberal, temperate and articulate, and because he freely recognizes past Big Business abuses, Wendell L. Willkie, president of huge Commonwealth & Southern Corp., is in a class by himself as a persuasive businessman-critic of the New Deal. […] "Today it is not Big Business that we have to fear," concluded Businessman Wilkie. "It is Big Government."
    • 1998 August 2, John M. Broder, “The Nation: Big Deal”, in New York Times, retrieved 13 December 2011:
      Mr. Clinton inherited a Presidency that had been downsized by Watergate and the end of the cold war. […] Two years ago he declared the end of the era of big government and embarked upon a program of bite-sized policy initiatives.
    • 2009 May 7, Michael Grunwald, “One Year Ago: The Republicans in Distress”, in Time:
      Big Government is never popular in theory, but the disaster aid, school lunches and prescription drugs that make up Big Government have become wildly popular in practice.
    • 2010 April 17, David Cameron, “This is a radical revolt against the statist approach of Big Government”, in The Guardian‎:
      This is why the Conservative programme for government is founded on such a radical revolt against the statist approach of the Big Government that always knows best.
    • 2013 August 16, Adam Gabbatt, quoting Ron Paul, “The Ron Paul Channel: libertarianism 'unfiltered and uninterrupted'”, in The Guardian‎:
      "There is no space for people to have a real discussion about the Fed or drone strikes abroad or the pharmaceutical industry, let alone how our freedoms are being infringed upon by big government," he said.

See also

References
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