Japan, Role Model for the U.S.?

Yesterday, the New York Times front page contained this article: "Japan’s Stimulus Push Holds Lessons for U.S.," by Martin Fackler. The gist of the article is that, in the 1990s, when Japan’s economy went down the tubes, the Japanese government spent over $6 trillion on public works projects, mostly construction-related, to spur the economy back to life. After 10 years of this, the Japanese were still in a recession. The most telling paragraph in the article is this(P. A10):

Among ordinary Japanese, the spending is widely disparaged for having turned the nation into a public-works-based welfare state and making regional economies dependent on Tokyo for jobs. Much of the blame has fallen
on the Liberal Democratic Party, which has long used government spending to grease rural vote-buying machines that help keep the party in power. [emphasis added]

Sound familiar? Suppose we paraphrase Fackler(changes in italics):

Among ordinary Americans, the spending is widely
disparaged for havingturned the nation into a public-works-basedwelfare state and making regional economies dependent on Washington for jobs. Much of the blame has fallen on the liberal Democrat Party,which has long used governmentspending to grease rural, city, and
suburban vote-buying machines--such as unions,
Acorn, the ACLU,the NAACP, La Raza, etc.--that help keep
the party in power.

Will ordinary Americans (or, as Dan Rather used to call us, “work-a-day Americans”) be as smart as “ordinary Japanese”, and realize what a colossal power-grab this so-called stimulus package is? I am not optimistic.