The Big, Beautiful Bill reveals the (marginal) differences in the UniParty

Both Democrats and Republicans are on the same page regarding the welfare-warfare state

When President Nixon and imposed wage and price controls in August 1971, I realized there was only one party in Washington, the Washington party.

Republicans talked a good game about limited government and free enterprise back then—and still do—but Nixon violated those principles with his wage-price control policies with virtually no opposition from congressional Republicans

Today, some analysts have dubbed the bipartisanship support for the welfare state in DC as the UniParty.

The WSJ editorial highlights one the many insignificant differences between Democrats and Republicans regarding the welfare state.

Democrats want to maintain Medicaid spending for ineligible recipients while Republicans want to remove them from the rolls. However, both Ds and Rs want to maintain the federal government’s “safety net.”

In other words, the welfare state is not being “gutted,” contrary to the bellyaching of the Democrats.

There is a better way to help our fellow citizens who have fallen on hard times and need a temporary helping hand. See my Open Letter to Bill Gates.

In short, financial independence and nonprofitization would end the plundering of American taxpayers and improve—in this case—the health outcomes of low income families.

Despite the Republican rhetoric of free markets, limited government, and fiscal conservatives, they as much as the Democrats have increased federal spending by leaps and bounds since the 1960s.

The following chart reveals that spending has been accelerating no matter which party’s president occupies the Oval Office.

Another way of looking at the long-term trend of spending is to examine the rate of change in the federal budget during Democratic and Republican presidents since the 1960s.

The conclusions from this chart are that both Republican and Democratic presidents have increased spending by similar percentages, with Nixon-Ford (1969-76), Bush II (2001-2009 )and Trump (first term, 2017-21)) having increased spending usually associated with “big spending Democrats.” (See the 1960s, especially since the mid decade spending spree when LBJ gave us the Vietnam War and beginning of the Great Society.). Ironically, federal spending increased moderately under Democrats Clinton (1993-2000) and Obama (2009-2016).

The moral of the story is that the “culture of spending” is DC’s endemic “illness.”

To break the virus of the welfare state, a new culture has to be promoted far and wide.

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The meaning of America First, and here as well.

The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists. Ernest Hemingway

The government and its chiefs do not have the powers of a mythical Santa Claus. They cannot spend except by taking out of the pockets of some people for the benefit of others.

Ludwig von Mises

MAKE AMERICANS FINANCIALLY INDEPENDENT

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Murray Sabrin, PhD, is emeritus professor of finance, Ramapo College of New Jersey. Dr. Sabrin is considered a “public intellectual” for writing about the economy in scholarly and popular publications. His book, The Finance of Health Care: Wellness and Innovative Approaches to Employee Medical Insurance (Business Expert Press, Oct. 24, 2022), and his other BEP publication, Navigating the Boom/Bust Cycle: An Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide (October 2021), provides decision makers with tools needed to help manage their businesses during the business cycle. Sabrin's autobiography, From Immigrant to Public Intellectual: An American Story, was published in November, 2022. He is also the author of Why the Federal Reserve Sucks.