In a speech to the Economic Club of Chicago today, Bush, who has never vetoed a spending bill, as far as I know, praised Congress for cutting government spending on entitlement programs. But the president has placed an entire country on the welfare rolls: Iraq. Iraqis are now wards of the American state. Non-military spending there—the news media call that part of Operation Iraqi Freedom “good news”—threatens to dwarf spending state-side. “Philanthropic” wars are transfer programs—the quintessential big-government projects. The perpetually profligate Bush should quit pretending he’s an apostle of smaller government.
Warfare/Welfare
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