It was Alabama Gov. George Wallace who declared that there wasn’t a “dime’s worth of difference” between the Republican and Democratic parties. That was in 1968.

The four-time candidate for president, who died in 1998, would be surprised to see that the differences today are measured in billions of dollars rather than stacks of dimes.

While Republicans and Democrats fought bitterly over many issues in the ’60s and ’70s, there was also general agreement that the federal government had a positive effect on the lives of ordinary Americans.

It was, after all, Republican Richard Nixon who first proposed a national health care system, created the Environmental Protection Agency and imposed wage and price controls.

Wage and price controls! Imagine how that would fly today.

If nothing else, the debt-ceiling debate has defined two starkly different philosophies of government.

Republicans see a much smaller role for the federal government, to be delivered by cutting programs and services without raising taxes.

Democrats argue for raising taxes to support increasingly expensive social programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

The public, meanwhile, grows increasingly frustrated by stalemates and partisanship. The resulting gridlock is frustrating to everyone, including members of Congress.

The most recent example involves re-authorization of funding for the Federal Aviation Administration.

In a bitter dispute over union election rules, the Senate and House have failed to agree on extending the agency’s funding.

About 4,000 workers have been furloughed and airport construction projects across the country have been padlocked, throwing about 74,000 construction workers out of work.

The federal government expects to lose $1.2 billion in ticket taxes that will go uncollected.

Yet Republicans see this as a painful but necessary approach to turning around the aircraft carrier of government. Democrats see it as Republicans holding government hostage to the whims of a minority.

The aircraft carrier analogy is a good one. As we have seen for the past 30 years, the massive ship of state has an inertia all its own. Republicans and Democrats for decades have routinely approved debt-ceiling increases to pay for tax cuts and new programs.

The ceiling has been raised 106 times since 1940 and only one president, Harry Truman, never sought a debt-ceiling increase.

Ronald Reagan did it 18 times and George W. Bush seven. Typically, the party in power votes to raise it, and the party out of power gives them hell for doing so.

This time, however, a solid block of Republicans came to office pledging never to do it again.

That crisis, now averted by a last-minute compromise, sets the stage for the next election 18 months away.

As Americans begin to feel federal budget cuts take effect, will they still support tea party congressmen and women?

If the economy continues to worsen and the stock market repeatedly tanks as it did Thursday, will Americans see cutting federal stimulus spending and unemployment compensation benefits as wise moves or blunders?

While the outcome is impossible to predict, the choices before voters will be very different and very clear.

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The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and editorial board.