Tweet [1]
Donald Trump was elected, and the GOP was once again in charge. Almost immediately, Republicans began touting increased military and infrastructure spending to create jobs and spur the economy—the very Keynesian-inspired policies they attacked when advocated by Democrats. Even the small number of federal program terminations proposed by the Trump administration were too much for congressional Republicans. Nope—when it comes to the federal budget and yet another looming brush-up against the federal debt ceiling, Republicans reveal that they’re content to maintain an untenable status quo, despite all the lip service paid to the dangers of big government over the years.
Speaking of hypocrisy, Benjamin Zycher exposes some if it coming now from the political left [5].
Randolph May is understandably worried about the growing power of the administrative state [7].
Tyler Cowen notes that Americans are, indeed, super-rich [8]. A slice:
Consumption in the U.S., per capita, measures about 50 percent higher than in the European Union. American individuals command more resources than people in countries such as Norway or Luxembourg, which have higher per capita GDP. The same American consumption advantage is evident if you look at dwelling space per person or the number of appliances in a typical home.
Once we focus on consumption, America’s high health-care expenditures no longer appear so unusual.
Steve Horwitz reveals yet another of the approaching-infinity number of reasons to dismiss Nancy MacLean’s Democracy in Chains as a book whose substantive claims are all fallacies [9]. Here’s Steve’s conclusion:
Nancy MacLean’s overarching narrative of public choice’s call for constitutional constraints as a road map for the powerful to acquire and maintain power over the powerless gets matters completely backward. [W.H.] Hutt’s invitation to Buchanan’s Jefferson Center and the talks he gave and the papers he published while there are further evidence of her complete misreading of her subject matter.