Big government = That 70s Show?

I was reading the cover story for US News and World Report recently and found this bizarre paragraph:

Here's a little straight talk: Whether you pull the lever (or fill in the oval or touch the screen) for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or even John McCain in November, you're probably still going to end up in 2009 with a push for Big Government of the sort not seen in a generation. More taxes. More regulation. More spending. "It's going to be like watching That '70s Show," says Daniel Clifton, political analyst at Strategas Research Partners, which provides research to institutional investors.

Huh? Perhaps I'm a little dense, but I don't really understand how this relates to That 70s Show. If it's a metaphor for us pushing towards a Carter-era government, the writer may have been better served in explaining that.