Are you but a one-trick pony Barry?
Why go back to Dennis Healy or the Soviet Union only. We can easily go much farther back, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's."*
"In the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, each report the response of Jesus to a vexing question of whether we should be involved in politics. The trick questions about taxes had more meaning than this issue might hold for us today..."
http://www.slu.edu/mission-matters-109