Category Archives: Welfare spending

DOJ’s Zero Tolerance Of Zero Tolerance

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A Justice Department report critical of the Baltimore police missed the point. So did those who praised and faulted it. [Credit: NY Post]

A Jus­tice Depart­ment report crit­i­cal of the Bal­ti­more police missed the point. So did those who praised and fault­ed it. [Cred­it: NY Post]

The Depart­ment of Jus­tice report on Bal­ti­more police prac­tices has prompt­ed pre­dictable reac­tions from Left and Right.

The report con­firmed sus­pi­cions on the Left that police uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly harassed African-Amer­i­can males. From the Right came reflex­ive defens­es of the police.

Both have a point.  And both miss the point.  As does the report itself. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Obamacare And The Daughters of (40% Less) Charity

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The President last week professed his love -- appropriately chaste, of course -- for Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association and tireless Obamacare advocate. [Credit: Wikipedia]

The Pres­i­dent last week pro­fessed his love — appro­pri­ate and chaste, of course — for Sis­ter Car­ol Kee­han, pres­i­dent of the Catholic Health Asso­ci­a­tion and tire­less Oba­macare advo­cate. [Cred­it: Wikipedia]

I just love nuns gen­er­al­ly.  I’m just say­ing.  – Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, June 9

And nuns just love him too.  At least nuns who run hos­pi­tals seem to.  And with good rea­son: the Pres­i­dent advo­cates poli­cies that enable hos­pi­tals like those oper­at­ed by the Daugh­ters of Char­i­ty to pro­vide less char­i­ty.  Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The GOP’s Gift To Henry Waxman — Part II

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Cold War era Congressman Chet Holifield wanted the federal government to finance a network of underground bomb shelters. His successor, Henry Waxman, wanted the federal government to take over health care. Holifield failed; Waxman is still doing just fine. [Credit: NY Times]

Cold War era Con­gress­man Chet Holifield want­ed the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to finance a net­work of under­ground bomb shel­ters. His suc­ces­sor, Hen­ry Wax­man, want­ed the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to take over health care. Holifield failed; Wax­man did just fine. [Cred­it: NY Times]

Chet Holifield was obsessed with The Bomb.

Dur­ing a 32-year tenure that flow­ered dur­ing the Cold War, the Los Ange­les Con­gress­man sought fed­er­al mon­ey to help Amer­i­cans sur­vive a nuclear war.  He called for “a nation­wide sys­tem of under­ground shel­ters” in which to hud­dle, safe from irra­di­at­ed debris.

Though Holifield achieved suc­cess in oth­er areas – he was known as “Mr. Atom­ic Ener­gy” for his pro­mo­tion of nuclear pow­er — he left Con­gress in 1974 with­out ful­fill­ing his sub­ter­ranean vision. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The GOP’s Gift To Henry Waxman — Part I

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Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and John Boehner (R-OH) took a bow when the House passed a $141 billion health care bill. But Henry Waxman deserves the credit. [Credit: Politico]

Nan­cy Pelosi (D‑CA) and House Speak­er John Boehn­er (R‑OH) took a bow when the House passed a $141 bil­lion health care bill. But Hen­ry Wax­man deserves the cred­it. [Cred­it: Politico]

“What a way to cel­e­brate a birth­day!”  – House Minor­i­ty Leader Nan­cy Pelosi (D‑CA) after the House passed bipar­ti­san health care legislation

Sor­ry, Nan­cy.  It’s not about you.

The $141 bil­lion health care bill that cleared the House last month and that is expect­ed to win Sen­ate approval next week is a trib­ute from the GOP-con­trolled Con­gress to for­mer Con­gress­man Hen­ry Wax­man, a man who worked tire­less­ly – and with great suc­cess – to expand health care-relat­ed wel­fare spend­ing. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

If Obama Were President

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The mammone -- a jobless man in his 20s, 30s or 40s who lives with mamma -- is an Italian tradition. But under President Obama, labor force participation rates of young men have plunged to Italian levels. [Credit: studenti.it]

The mam­mone — a job­less man in his 20s, 30s or 40s who lives with mam­ma — is an Ital­ian tra­di­tion. Under Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, labor force par­tic­i­pa­tion rates of young Amer­i­can men have plunged to Ital­ian lev­els. [Cred­it: studenti.it]

In Italy, they call him a mam­mone: an unem­ployed man in his 20s, 30s or 40s who still lives with mamma.

The preva­lence of the mam­mone has long been thought to be a pre­dom­i­nant­ly Ital­ian phe­nom­e­non, with deep cul­tur­al roots.  It has grown more pro­nounced with the country’s recent eco­nom­ic dis­tress.  Since 2008, a grow­ing per­cent­age of Ital­ian men aged 25–54 have aban­doned the labor force, no longer both­er­ing even to look for work.

Italy’s work­force par­tic­i­pa­tion rate among men of prime work­ing age is by far Europe’s low­est.  But it is not the low­est in the devel­oped world.  Italy now shares that dubi­ous dis­tinc­tion with the U.S.

That wouldn’t hap­pen if Oba­ma were Pres­i­dent. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Tolerance, The Amish And Hobby Lobby

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Pamela Harris, shown here with her disabled son, prevailed at the Supreme Court this week in her challenge to an Illinois law requiring her to pay union dues. [Credit: Heartland Institute]

Pamela Har­ris, shown here with her dis­abled son, pre­vailed at the Supreme Court this week in her chal­lenge to an Illi­nois law requir­ing her to pay union dues. [Cred­it: Heart­land Institute]

For a brief time dur­ing the 1980s, I was Direc­tor of Pol­i­cy Devel­op­ment for the Social Secu­ri­ty Admin­is­tra­tion.  The title is more glo­ri­fied than the real­i­ty.  Social Secu­ri­ty is a big and ossi­fied pro­gram that resists “pol­i­cy devel­op­ment.”  Con­gress, ever cog­nizant of the polit­i­cal risks of tam­per­ing with the pro­gram, had been forced by its loom­ing insol­ven­cy to pass a mas­sive law hik­ing pay­roll tax­es and rais­ing the retire­ment age just a few years before.  They were in no mood to enter­tain addi­tion­al legislation.

But my job was to pre­pare options for the Commissioner’s con­sid­er­a­tion, so I met with career staff who had an idea: why not advo­cate for a bill requir­ing self-employed Amish farm­ers to pay social secu­ri­ty tax­es? Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Inequality: What We Earn vs. What We Consume

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Is inequality better measured by what we earn or what we spend? The difference is surprising. [Credit: Politic.org]

Is inequal­i­ty bet­ter mea­sured by what we earn or what we spend? The dif­fer­ence is sur­pris­ing. [Cred­it: Politic.org]

Is your stan­dard of liv­ing bet­ter mea­sured by what you earn or by what you buy?

The ques­tion may seem an odd one, but it is crit­i­cal to under­stand­ing the prob­lem of ris­ing inequal­i­ty. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Paul Krugman and the Inequality Deniers

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Recent criticism of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Centruy has drawn the ire of the splenetic Paul Krugman. [Credit: National Review]

Recent crit­i­cism of Thomas Piket­ty’s Cap­i­tal in the 21st Cen­tu­ry has drawn the ire of the sple­net­ic Paul Krug­man. [Cred­it: Nation­al Review]

There is grow­ing con­cern among peo­ple on the Right and Left about income inequal­i­ty. But you wouldn’t know that from read­ing Paul Krugman’s lat­est screed.

What stirred Krugman’s bile this week was crit­i­cism of econ­o­mist Thomas Piketty’s book, Cap­i­tal in the 21st Cen­tu­ry, a work that has attained canon­i­cal sta­tus among the Left on both sides of the Atlantic. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Frenemies of the Poor

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The 50th anniversary of the President Johnson's declaration of a War on Poverty has provoked strong views on whether it has succeeded or failed. The truth lies somewhere between. [Credit: Huffington Post]

The 50th anniver­sary of the Pres­i­dent John­son’s dec­la­ra­tion of a War on Pover­ty has pro­voked strong views on whether it has suc­ceed­ed or failed. The truth lies some­where between. [Cred­it: Huff­in­g­ton Post]

It’s not much of an exag­ger­a­tion to say that right now Repub­li­cans are doing all they can to hurt the poor, and they would have inflict­ed vast­ly more harm if they had won the 2012 elec­tion. More­over, GOP harsh­ness toward the less for­tu­nate isn’t just a mat­ter of spite (although that’s part of it); it’s deeply root­ed in the party’s ide­ol­o­gy.  Paul Krug­man, “Ene­mies of the Poor,” Jan­u­ary 12, 2014

The 50th anniver­sary of Pres­i­dent Johnson’s War on Pover­ty has occa­sioned a good deal of moral exhi­bi­tion­ism. Lib­er­als heap praise on the pro­grams and flat­ter them­selves for sup­port­ing the trans­fer of an esti­mat­ed $20.7 tril­lion (in 2011 dol­lars) in cash and non-cash ben­e­fits from those who earned it to those who did not. And they are rel­ish­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to denounce con­ser­v­a­tives as ene­mies of the poor, moti­vat­ed by ide­ol­o­gy and spite.

Some con­ser­v­a­tives, like the Her­itage Foundation’s Robert Rec­tor, are using the anniver­sary to declare the War on Pover­ty lost. Rec­tor recent­ly was quot­ed as say­ing that “the War on Pover­ty has been a com­plete cat­a­stro­phe.” Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Welfare or Work: A Difficult Choice

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The choice between welfare and work is not always an easy one, according to a new study by the Cato Institute. (Credit: LA Times)

The choice between wel­fare and work is not always an easy one, accord­ing to a new study by the Cato Insti­tute. (Cred­it: LA Times)

(NOTE: This post was updat­ed on Sep­tem­ber 23 to incor­po­rate the gov­ern­men­t’s new­ly-released pover­ty rate data.)

If forced to choose between a full-time job that paid $24.40 per hour and enrolling in a pack­age of gov­ern­ment ben­e­fits that paid a com­pa­ra­ble amount, which would you choose? Con­tin­ue read­ing →