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They Are All Socialists Now

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President Trump and his Trumpista supporters are making a big deal about Democrats being socialists. They say that if Democrats were to get their way, America would be turned into Venezuela. What a joke! No, not the part about the Democrats being socialists and turning America into Venezuela. Trump is right about that. It’s a joke that Trump and his Trumpistas are opposed to socialism. The truth is that Trump and his followers are as much socialist as Democrats. Let us count five ways: Social Security and Medicare, the two crown jewels of the welfare state. These socialist programs are based on the Marxian idea of taking money from one group of people and giving it to another group of people. They were not part of America’s founding political system. The concept originated among German socialists and was later imported into the United States. Trump and his followers are as ardent supporters of these two socialist programs as Democrats. Immigration controls, ...

Trump’s Rejection of Socialism is a Conservative Joke

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In his State of the Union Address, President Trump declared: Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls for socialism in our country. America was founded on liberty and independence — and not government coercion, domination and control. We are born free, and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country. What a joke. For two reasons. One, America went socialist a long time ago with its welfare-warfare state; and Two, Republicans are as fiercely committed to socialism as Democrats, so long as the socialism is labeled “free enterprise.” This is the game that Republicans and Democrats have played for ages with each other. They act like there are profound philosophical and economic differences between each other, with one party favoring socialism and the other party favoring “capitalism.” In actuality, there isn’t any fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats. They are flip sides of the same coin. They share the same philosophical mindset, ...

Debts and Deficits are Out of Control

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Understandably, the problems and politics of the moment dominate the news and attract the attention of most policy commentators and much of the public. Will there be another government shutdown, will House Democrats attempt to impeach the president, will interest rates remain low, and will there be a trade war with China? But there are longer-term problems as well, and one of them is the rising U.S. national debt due to annual government budget deficits as far into the future as the eye can see. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently issued its latest “Budget and Economic Outlook” projection, covering the next decade, 2019-29. And it is not a pretty picture. As of the beginning of February 2019, the cumulative federal government debt is approaching $22 trillion. This comes out to a per capita burden of nearly $67,000 for all those residing in the United States, and about $179,500 per U.S. taxpayer. The CBO predicts that between 2019 ...

Steve Horwitz Is Wrong, On Both Liberty and Methodology

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  AUTHOR’S NOTE: On July 13, the Cato Institute published on its website libertarianism.org an article entitled “The Errors of Nostalgi-tarianism” by Steve Horwitz, a libertarian economics professor at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Horwitz’s article was a critique of a fundraising letter that I recently sent to supporters of The Future of Freedom Foundation requesting help with upgrading ...

Legalize Drugs — All Drugs

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In 1972, Newsweek published what must have been considered by many readers to be a shocking commentary on the drug war by libertarian Nobel Prize–winning economist Milton Friedman. Entitled “Prohibition and Drugs,” Friedman’s article called for the legalization of drugs — all drugs. Friedman made two primary libertarian arguments in favor of drug legalization: freedom and practicality. He wrote, On ethical ...

Why Not Dismantle the New Deal?

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Every so often, progressives and the mainstream press exclaim with horror that Republicans are intent on dismantling the New Deal, the socialist-interventionist economic system that the Franklin Roosevelt administration brought into existence in the 1930s and that has been with us ever since. The concerns are groundless. Republicans and conservatives are as wedded to FDR’s New Deal, especially Social Security ...