What would Reagan think of Henry Paulson?

ILLUSTRATED: The GOP has just forfeited a generation's worth of political leverage.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has just unveiled a new plan to regulate the financial industry. It is uncertain how much of it will become law and which president will sign the bill.
It will be some time before we know how many real regulatory changes are actually in place here, or if it is just cosmetic. The merits will be discussed later, but the political implications are huge. The GOP has ceded the fact that the economy needs to be regulated for its own benefit. Gone is Reagan's mantra that "government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem."
For the next generation, Democrats should not be afraid of being labeled anti-business. We should say "regulating business is in the public interest, and in the interest of commerce."