"Most people are busy just trying to make a living," he said. "And with all the
focus on Iraq and bin Laden, it gives the administration an opportunity to take
a lot of loot out the back door without anybody noticing."

Today's NY Times has great article on the rollback of regulations underway by the Bush Administration:

The administration's 2004 budget proposed to cut 77 enforcement and related
positions from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, while adding
two new staff members whose jobs would be to help industry comply with agency
rules.

I don't have a particular preference for big or small government. I actually think there is a choice between good and bad, necessary and unnecessary, etc.. Some regulations are poorly drafted. Some are impossible to enforce. Some are outdated. Getting rid or reshaping regulations can be a healthy process. The Administration, however, has slashed the costs of regulation to about 1/8th of Reagan's free-for-all 80's. It would seem that we are moving into a situation where one self-interested faction is getting too much power. I was not surprised by this observation:

Some analysts argue that the Bush administration has introduced rules favoring
industry with a dedication unmatched in modern times. "My thoughts go back to
Herbert Hoover," said Robert Dallek, the presidential historian. "No president
could have been more friendly to business than Hoover" until the Bush
administration.

It tracks the tenor a recent article in the American Prospect:

For most Americans, the last four years have represented a low point in our
economic history. But for the big-business interests financing the Bush
campaign, these have been high times. In previous eras, and even under previous
Republican administrations, corporate America was one of a number of players in
the public-policy arena. But under the Bush administration, big business is both
the player and the referee, having finally won its decades-long campaign to
eliminate the boundary between executive suite and public office.