Welfare state | AEIdeas

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Lipstick on the pig

Tom Donnelly | February 27, 2013, 2:51 pm

Let’s face it: President Obama has performed a masterful jiu-jitsu move on the Republican Party, turning the Tea Party’s smaller-government energy of 2010 into a force that’s served to both expand and more deeply entrench entitlement programs while achieving a … read more >

Pethokoukis

The explosion in Supplemental Security Income recipients

James Pethokoukis | December 18, 2012, 2:50 pm

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently wrote about the perverse incentives caused by the Supplemental Security Income program: This is painful for a liberal to admit, but conservatives have a point when they suggest that America’s safety net can … read more >

Economics, Entitlements

Welfare programs that do more harm than good

Arthur C. Brooks | December 10, 2012, 11:28 am

In Sunday’s New York Times, columnist Nick Kristof has an important piece that I recommend, discussing how America’s social safety net has become in too many instances a net that entraps people rather than catches them when they fall: “This … read more >

Image credit: Ragesoss (Flickr) (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Society and Culture

The 3 laws of social programs

Charles Murray | December 10, 2012, 9:25 am

Several people have tagged me and Losing Ground since Nicholas Kristoff’s column on Friday about the ways that social programs can backfire. It was a praiseworthy column—all of us on both sides of the political spectrum should be as ready … read more >

President Obama signing the Affordable Care Act into law

Economics, Pethokoukis

The Democratic endgame is here

James Pethokoukis | December 5, 2012, 3:06 pm

Yuval Levin deftly describes Democratic and Republican policy goals. For the Ds, he says, it’s to preserve, protect, and defend the Obamacare-expanded welfare state — oh, and finance it, too: With Obamacare enacted, they are basically done building. They might … read more >

Pethokoukis

Charts: Warfare State and Innovation State down, Welfare State up

James Pethokoukis | November 15, 2012, 1:30 pm

So what exactly is the cause of America’s fiscal problem? And it is not just about declining defense budgets. As a recent report from Third Way concluded, ”As the Baby Boomers enter retirement, entitlements will encroach upon an even greater portion … read more >

Pethokoukis

Misplaced Nordic envy

James Pethokoukis | October 30, 2012, 1:50 pm

The United States is now just the 12th most prosperous nation on Earth, apparently. This marks the first time it has ever fallen from the top ten of the Legatum Institute’s Prosperity Index. Here is an explanatory note from a … read more >

Pethokoukis

Romney needs to keep talking about our fiscally and morally disastrous Entitlement Society

James Pethokoukis | September 18, 2012, 2:29 pm

Romney and Ryan are nuts if this latest kerfuffle stops them from talking about this (numbers courtesy of AEI’s Nick Eberstadt): 1. In 1960, U.S. government transfers to individuals totaled about $24 billion in current dollars, according to the Bureau … read more >

Economics, Taxes and Spending

Geithner inadvertently makes the case for anti-tax absolutism

James Pethokoukis | April 19, 2012, 3:10 pm

The U.S. Treasury Secretary: And, again, that’s why I think the right way to think about the fiscal challenges ahead is, first, put that in perspective. Don’t put it ahead of everything else we face. Recognize you have deal with … read more >

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