Krugman Goes After Some Straw Men

In his latest column, Paul Krugman criticizes the outsourcing of various government programs to private companies by the Bush administration, and complains:

And maybe, just maybe, the abject failure of this administration’s efforts to outsource essential functions to the private sector will diminish the antigovernment prejudice created by decades of right-wing propaganda.

That’s important, because the presumption that the private sector can do no wrong and the government can do nothing right prevents us from coming to grips with some of America’s biggest problems — in particular, our wildly dysfunctional health care system. More on that in future columns.

Wait a minute, there's a presumption that "the private sector can do no wrong and the government can do nothing right"? Has anyone ever said that? Where? Now, it is true that many people, myself included, would argue that on balance the private sector can do a better job of most things than can the government. But that's a very different proposition.