On Tue, Sep 25, 2001 at 09:41:14AM -0400, Bryan-TheBS-Smith wrote:
<snip>
> Defense spending, including advanced research, is well under 10%
> now. Missile defense (and I _dare_ you to challenge me on this) is
> costing us peanuts -- plus it accounts for a crapload of DoD
> research going on (that benefit other markets). Social services is
> close to 2/3rds. Even in the Reagan years, DoD/Research maxed at
> ~24%, whereas social services was _always_ the majority! The Reagan
> administration, with the 1982+ Democratic Congressional majority,
> _expanded_ social services _more_ than any other administration!!!
>
The other problem with this is that it allows and encourages politicians
to pander for votes. Once you introduce federal income tax, you have a
steady stream of money that only gets bigger the more the country
expands. It's got to go somewhere. That's where FDR and the like come
in. All of a sudden, the government is in the business of "saving"
people and "helping" people. Which really translates into making them
slaves. Meantime, politicians can use the money to prove how sympathetic
they are to their constituents. And of course, their needs just grow.
Tax rates have to increase to pay for the entitlement programs they
blithely create with nary a thought toward the future. But boy, their
constituents sure think they care.
But the best part of this is, when you tell the Liberals that their
programs didn't work, they simply say that we didn't spend _enough_ on
them!
Paul
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