Jared Kushner (Credit: Getty/Mandel Ngan/Marvel/Salon) One of the dumber and therefore most popular ideas in politics is the notion that the federal government should operate like something that is not a government. You see variations of this idea popping up constantly in statements from Democrats and Republicans alike, particularly when it comes to the federal budget, which we’re told must be balanced in the same way that average American families (don’t) balance their own budgets.