Actually Charles, it really began with Roosevelt’s New Deal, which was a massive undertaking, at great cost, to save the U.S. from the great Depression. Republicans/Conservatives have been trying to erase it since the 1950’s!
tubegroover, my sister had a husband (now deceased) who was blind, the result of at a young age picking up a blasting cap on the farm he grew up on in Oregon. On one drive into Portland my sister commented on some new bike lanes which had been installed on some streets (bikes are huge in Portland--odd with all the rain), which outraged him. "Why should I have to pay for them?" was his comment, for the obvious reason. I was tempted to ask him why other taxpayers should have to pay for the public High School his 20-year old was still going to. The kid was on his third try at making it through his senior year. The husband was a very loud, argumentative, opinionated watcher of a certain cable TV news station (I better not name it---might ruffle the censor’s feathers). There was no such thing as a civil discussion with the guy. Don’t miss him at all, especially as was also not nice to my sister.