It’s a cruel game to defend government spending on the well-fed with the lament that spending cuts must be stopped, lest the poor and vulnerable suffer.
The poor and vulnerable will not suffer in a society that reduces spending on corporate welfare, sham job-creation programs, so-called business-development grants, and spending on weapons so expensive and impractical that the military can afford to build only a few (and dare not risk a one).
These are not programs for the poor — they’re programs for well-connected friends, favored businesses, and influential military contractors.
The politicians who feed friends on the slop of Big Government care about the vulnerable simply as a talking point, a defense of other business as usual.
The national Libertarian Party highlights this selfish tactic in this week’s message (“Libertarians propose rolling back the most-needed services last – after getting government out of the way so that voluntary solutions can take their place.”)
(For more about how libertarians will support transitional spending for the vulnerable and destitute, see On Poverty Spending)