July 27, 2011
By Dan Greenfield
The New Deal’s bargain was that Americans would trade higher taxes and less economic freedom for a social safety net. That was until the left decided that the social safety net was actually a wealth redistribution platform. The social safety net slid into the welfare state, a program of subsidies for reliable Democratic voters at the expense of the general public.
Now the Social Security Trust Fund has been looted and FDR II is threatening that benefits won’t be paid if congress doesn’t commit to another extended deficit spending binge. Not on behalf of the social safety net, but the nanny and the welfare state.
The Democratic party loves taking credit for the social safety net, but they have proven to be completely irresponsible trustees, squandering the trust by borrowing against the sum, and then borrowing against the debt to fund an entirely separate agenda. What began as security for workers mutated into a bureaucracy that existed for its own sake expanding benefits and spending to bulk up its power and influence. Read More
