Welfare as Armed Robbery
Kevin D. Williamson on welfare recipients and, if I’ve interpreted him correctly, government workers:
They will not willingly give up those checks, and there will always be a Barack Obama out there to profit by pretending that pillaging half of the country to bribe the other is a kind of moral crusade, rather than a lightly disguised form of armed robbery.
Pillaging! Bribing! Crusading! These sure as summer sunshine describe many a state throughout history, and yet, as metaphors for our welfare system, I just can’t make sense of them. I understand what Williamson means and why he depicts welfare as armed robbery, and I imagine he could, with no additional research needed, put before the court evidence of greed and envy being cleverly manipulated by sanctimonious-sounding politicians and motivating voters who aren’t exactly hurting in our economy.
And yet…
Williamson notes that “more than 100 million Americans receive health-care benefits at public expense, either through entitlement programs such as Medicaid and Medicare or through benefit programs for government employees.” Okay, so taxpayers pay for the health-care benefits of some but not all of their fellow Americans. Does this mean that the recipients of these benefits are using the state to rob the public? Maybe in some cases that’s what’s going on in terms of motivation, but would it not be more accurate to say that these programs function as a means for the public to contribute to the common good of health-care? What makes these programs robbery? That taxpayers are forced under the law to pay for them?
Unless all taxation that benefits only some of the public constitutes robbery, I’m at a loss here. No, I’d still be at a loss.
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Here’s what I don’t understand. Barack Obama put Medicaid and Social Security cuts on the table in the first place; he maintained the Bush era tax cuts; and he is much closer to Reagan’s economic policies than any REPUBLICAN preceding Reagan. It’s not as though Obama were some wacko leftist a la Eisenhower or Nixon (whose tax and economic policies are far to the left of his); he’s clearly a neoliberal. Everything he has done benefits existent capital: from the health insurance “reform” to the settlement with the big fraudulent banks he’s currently trying to ram through. The only difference between Obama and the Republican candidates is rhetorical!
By the way, since the military is composed entirely of government workers, it would seem that Williamson’s argument would commit him to severe cuts in defense; but try selling that to NRO.
I’ve long advocated defense-spending cuts in the pages of NR.
What is fascinating about conservative outrage is that there resentment is that government spending might provide health care, education, retirement income, food and shelter to millions of Americans who work full time in the private sector yet the private market fails to provide them the basics of life in exchange for their labor.
What they never mention is the government spending for the military, of course. Nor the FDIC which insures bank deposits. Nor the patent and trademark office which protects the intellectual property of corporations. Nor the FDA and the city health board to make sure these conservatives are not puking up their lunch at Le Bec Fin. Nor the Department of Commerce and the National Center for Health Statistics that sets industry standards and gathers stastical information overwhelmingly used by business. Nor the various other standards and practices that make trade and commerce possible.
We are lost as a society. It doesn’t matter that what he says is nonsense. He and many others often in blissful ignorance believe this. And with no sense of irony or misgiving as they boldly attend to the Gospel of Jesus at church on Sunday and live out the gospel of Ayn Rand the rest of the week. Where to start to repair the gross deficit of decency and concern for others?
As Kevin Williamson is self righteous and assertive like the Teaparty nuts demanding “Gov’t get their hands of my Medicare” the remaining disciples of common sense are dumbstruck and defeated. “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”