Forced Redistribution Majority of Federal Spending, Deficit
August 14, 2018
As you listen to commentators talking about “excessive” military spending and the federal budget deficit, this is your friendly periodic reminder that all U. S. military spending amounts to only 16% of federal spending, while forced redistribution represents 59% of federal spending. In dollar terms, forced redistribution is now the majority of what the federal government does; the federal government is literally a huge forced-redistribution operation with a smaller national-defense side project.
Don’t take my word for it; these numbers are according to the CBPP, which even the left agrees is of the left.
Taylor vs. DeWine, by the issues: taxes
May 4, 2018
This entry is part of a series of guest posts on the governor’s race. For the rest of the series, go to:
Taylor vs. DeWine: candidate comparison, by the issues (2018 Republican primary for Ohio governor)
On fiscal policies, Taylor and Estruth are true limited government fiscal conservatives. When a member of the Ohio House, Mary voted against a Taft tax increase incurring the rage of House leadership that subsequently kicked her off the Finance Committee. Ohio’s population has been in decline for over 15 years with neighboring states more often being the choice for businesses seeking growth opportunities. Taylor/Estruth are committed to reversing this competitive disadvantage.
You’ll recall that John Kasich (governor of Ohio 2011-2019) was one of the Republican governors who disappointingly chose to embrace the Obamacare expansion of Medicaid, putting thousands more in government dependency; when Ohio rejected his preferred policy, Kasich circumvented the legislature and imposed his will anyway.
Two candidates are running for the Republican nomination to replace Kasich (who is term-limited):
Mary Taylor
‘Republicans Didn’t Read the Bill’, and Other Possible Common Ground between Progressives and Conservatives
May 8, 2017
To our left-leaning friends currently criticizing Republicans in the House for apparently not having read the bill they just passed, a few thoughts:
1. I agree with you! Seriously, to that extent, shame on Republicans in Congress. “‘I don’t think any individual has read the whole bill,’ Representative Tom Garrett of Virginia said.” This is no way to run a republic. We elect these men to represent us; the parliamentary work of crafting and considering bills is literally their job. Bothering to read the thing is almost literally the least they could do.
What’s Wrong with Unemployment ‘Insurance’
May 26, 2016
In the United States, unemployment benefits or unemployment “insurance” is a government program that takes money from employees and employers (through a payroll tax) and gives money to employees who have become unemployed. Someone recently asked me to elaborate on why I oppose such programs, and what policy I would prefer instead.
Why Not Try Freedom?
May 17, 2016
U. N. Employee, N. Y. Times: U. N. Incompetent, Evil
April 6, 2016
A resigning United Nations assistant secretary general, writing in the opinion pages of the liberal New York Times, confirms what conservative critics have said for years: The United Nations is exactly what you would expect if Christianity and conservatism are true and man is fallen; the United Nations is like the federal government, but worse.
In “I Love the U.N., but It Is Failing”, Anthony Banbury first reports some of the colossal but comparatively tame failings of the enormous, molasses-like bureaucracy:
Pro-abortion, but Not Pro-choice about Life in General
April 3, 2016
A left-leaning friend of mine explains in a recent Facebook post that he’s not pro-choice, he’s pro-abortion.
If he were talking about anything else, he would sound like a great Lockean libertarian:
Glass Half Full
July 30, 2015
From today’s e-mail newsletter from NRO’s Jim Geraghty:
From the way conservatives talk, one would never know that Republicans have 54 U.S. Senate seats, 246 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives (a majority that the party could easily hold for the next decade), 31 governors, and 68 out of 98 partisan state legislatures. Republicans control the governorship and both houses in 23 states; Democrats control only seven.
Abortions have dropped 12 percent nationwide since 2010 and are down in almost every state. The divorce rate declined significantly in the past generation and is staying down, while the marriage rate is up a bit. Slate concedes, “Most Americans have given up on achieving meaningful gun control in their lifetimes or in their grandchildren’s lifetimes.”
‘the issue of welfare is not what it costs those who provide it, but what it costs those who receive it.’
January 23, 2015
Great line. From George Will’s column this week:
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a lifelong New Deal liberal and accomplished social scientist, warned that “the issue of welfare is not what it costs those who provide it, but what it costs those who receive it.”
(The apt headline and subtitle NRO gives it on the main page are “The Perils of Dependency: It’s changing our national character.”)
See also Mark Steyn and even FDR on the welfare state.
Walker for Governor, Again
September 25, 2014
I recently heard a Washington insider suggest that Scott Walker’s re-election campaign is the one conservatives should really be supporting this year, for those so inclined. The person suggested that races like Cory Gardner for Senate in Colorado, while previously considered close, are going to be fine—and Real Clear Politics does have the Senate map moving in our direction—while Governor Walker is facing an unexpectedly difficult race.
NPR Freudian Slip?
September 11, 2014
Heard on the local NPR station this morning, the first day of their fund drive:
“. . . and your guilt—uh, your gift—will help cover the cost of that . . . .”
No kidding.
They also forgot to mention that we’re already paying a lot that they didn’t ask for politely (direct government spending + CPB = 16.0% of NPR’s funding).
‘Trickle Down’ Bad, Stimulus Good?
August 28, 2014
Kevin Williamson at National Review Online makes an interesting point: Liberals decry what they call “trickle-down economics”, but if they support things like President Obama’s 2009 Stimulus Bill, they’re embracing the same kind of economic theory they claim to think ridiculous.
“Blue Voodoo: The Democrats embrace trickle-down economics”
Excerpt:
Perversely, those advancing trickle-down ideas are mostly the same ideologues who denounce “trickle-down.” But they do not call it trickle-down — they call it “stimulus.”
Republican Governors Who Pushed for Obamacare Expansion of Medicaid Lose in the Long Run?
August 27, 2014
This is interesting. From Jim Geraghty at NRO: “Early-state GOP voters are particularly wary about expanding Medicaid.”
“Flip-flopping to embrace Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion has real consequences,” said Tarren Bragdon, CEO of the Foundation for Government Accountability. “GOP voters in critical early-primary states have low opinions of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion and are very clear in their opposition to a governor who supports it. Republican governors like Mike Pence, John Kasich, and Terry Branstad [of Iowa] may have doomed their presidential campaigns before they even begin.”
Rolling Stone: Federal Student Loans Drive Prices Up, Drive Students into Debt Slavery
July 28, 2014
Rolling Stone magazine—not exactly a conservative publication—apparently ran a cover story last year on the college-loan bubble. (Warning: language. It is Rolling Stone, after all.) While the story presents itself as non-partisan and claims to criticize both conservatives and liberals, it agrees with the (previously conservative) observation that federal student loans themselves are a big part of why tuition costs are so high and increasing so fast. Maybe that understanding is becoming mainstream?
America Has ‘Deficit-attention Disorder’
July 21, 2014
Christopher DeMuth has a good line in the current issue of National Review:
I am in the camp of the deficit hawks such as Feldstein and Kotlikoff, but I do not think the reason we are failing to address the problem is that some other smart and influential people are deficit doves. Rather, I think that our political institutions and political leaders have accommodated themselves to deficit spending and growing debt and acquired a stake in their continuance. Disagreements over the consequences and immediacy of the problem are always resolved in favor of borrowing more to address the problems of the moment and deferring “debt consolidation” (through some combination of higher taxes, lower spending, and higher economic growth) to a later time. The American body politic has acquired deficit-attention disorder.
(Full article is available here. If you don’t subscribe, you should, but if not, you can read NR articles à la carte on demand for 25¢ each.)
The Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards has a new report, breaking down federal spending into five categories.
Excerpt:
A few thoughts on the president’s State of the Union address (text and video at Politico) earlier this week:
- Within the first few minutes of the speech, he wanted to take credit for cutting the deficit (as well as for other things that have happened very much despite, rather than because of, his best efforts—oil production, anyone?): “Our deficits — cut by more than half.” Then, just a few minutes later, he decried “last year’s severe cuts to priorities like education.” (He also decried “the damage done by last year’s cuts to basic research”.) As I observed three years ago, he can’t have it both ways.
A few weeks ago, I had to take a minimum-wage seasonal job (which, the job market still being what it is, is now my minimum-wage non-seasonal job). This week, my co-workers and I learned that we’re all going to be cut to part time, to comply with the Affordable Care Act.
The new law will require my employer to provide health insurance for any employees who work more than 29 hours a week. Employers who can’t afford to pay more money for the same amount of work will instead have to cut employees’ hours. Our former, mutually beneficial arrangements with our employer will now be against the law.
Enjoyment and Contemplation 