The great debate is over. Conservatism has defeated liberalism.
The King Canute-like notion that government can "create" wealth, that it can legislate into existence "benefits" out of thin air, that it can decree prosperity, has imploded like the Ponzi scheme it resembles.
What Reagan tried to do, Obama has accomplished. We know this because even the New York Times is taking notice.
Will wonders never cease?
Sunday's New York Times carries a page one story, top left, headlined "Crisis threatens liberal benefits of European life."
The deficit crisis that threatens the Euro has also undermined the sustainability of the European standard of social welfare, built by left-leaning governments since the end of World War 2 ... with its generous vacations and early retirements, its national health care systems and extensive welfare benefits. Europe can no longer afford its comfortable lifestyle ...
Folks, whomever is elected governor this November (especially either of the two Republicans) will demand that state employees pay more toward their retirement and toward their health insurance.
I take this from David Gergen's article in the May 9 Parade magazine:
- Public spending was 24% of the gross domestic product in 1950 but could hit 44% this year.
- 60% of all Americans now receive more in income benefits from government than they pay into government; with Obamacare, that number will grow to 70%.
- Only 47% of America households now pay federal income taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center.
- A country's publicly held debt should not hit 60% of its GDP. the Congressional Budget Office says the u.s. could hit 60% by the end of this year and on its current course could hit 100% by 2020.
Greece, here we come!
Teachers, teach thyself
Then there is the NY Times Magazine. Its cover story this week: "Are Teachers' unions the enemy of reform?"
Teachers unions account for one quarter of all union members in the country. One of every ten delegates to the last national Democrat(ic) National Convention were unionized teachers. The story will be the same at the state Dem convention.
The teachers union, that most retrograde of special interest groups, owns what is left of the Democrat(ic) party.
Drew, Cleveland
The State Journal notes that comedian Drew Carey, a native of Cleveland, will return to discuss with that dying city's elected leaders his ideas for rejeuvenation: less government, more completion, lower taxes, and school reform. In association with the libertarian Reason Foundation, it's called "Reason Saves Cleveland."
