Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The Fundamentals

Obama will thus be the conservative in 2012, in the truest sense of that word. He is the candidate defending the modestly redistributive and regulatory government the country has relied on since the New Deal... (E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post, 12/25/2011)


In the upside down world of the Liberal, Obama is a "conservative" defending the modest redistribution of wealth. How modest? Let's check with Dionne's colleague Robert J. Samuelson:


From 1960 to 2010, the share of federal spending going for “payments to individuals” (Social Security, food stamps, Medicare and the like) climbed from 26 percent to 66 percent....


Oh, 66 percent!


Samuelson continues:
No one wants to take away; it’s more fun to give. All of 2011’s budget feuds — over the debt ceiling, the supercommittee, the payroll tax cut — skirted the central issues. There’s a legitimate debate about how fast deficits should be reduced to avoid jeopardizing the economic recovery, notes Charles Blahous, a White House official in George W. Bush’s administration. But the long-term budget problem, as he says, stems from Social Security, Medicare and other health programs. (Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post, 12/25/2011)



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