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Democracy and Government Spending: Extend and Pretend


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Democracy-and-Government-Spending-Extend-and-PretendLudwig von Mises Institute :

Democracy and Government Spending: Extend and Pretend

 

Mises Daily: Tuesday, February 18, 2014 by Gregory Bresiger

Over the past 80 years or so governments have been expected to provide more and more social services. That means bigger and bigger bills for the taxpayers of this generation and generations unborn. Since governments almost constantly run in the red, they often resemble cocaine addicts desperately looking for the next fix. The fix, in the case of governments, is the perpetual need for more money, no matter how much wealth the engine of a strong economy may be generating.

 

One of the delusions of any democratic government is the “other guy will pay” syndrome. Usually, in mature welfare state democracies lawmakers look toward election cycles and understand that there is never enough money to back their promises. So they pass the bill problems to the future by money printing and issuing bonds that won’t come due until after their elections have been won. Scissors-32x32.png

 

For example, in the United States Social Security and Medicare “trust” funds surpluses have been arrogated over the years by both right- and left-wing governments. They used them to pay off political debts and make deficits seem smaller. However, President Bill Clinton implicitly conceded the scam. At the end of his presidency he was urging lawmakers “to save” Social Security. Why did it have to be saved? Where had years of high payroll taxes gone? Scissors-32x32.png


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