I don't believe Obama is a guy who believes in just taking the money from the rich and writing checks to the poor.
I think somehow people are confusing Obama with an American version of Chavez, and believe it is an absurd caricature of "liberal tax and spend" Democrats.
And to Lane--buying aircraft carriers (and the like) may be getting something for your money, but it is been pointed out for decades now that defense spending is outrageously inefficient, and in that sense, it is often seen as equivalent to "welfare," only for the rich defense contractors. And a great deal more of Federal tax money is "spent" that way than ever has been on welfare (social security and medicare excepted, if you wish to consider them "welfare" in some sense, which I don't, but nevermind).
EDIT: I see in another post you would consider being overcharged by defense contractors "graft" rather than "welfare" ("And "redistribution" to cronies is something else again--graft."). Well, OK. In the end, it effectively amounts to the same thing (or at least an analogous, or, as I wrote above, an "equivalent" thing). And far more expensive. |
