{"id":6856,"date":"2013-12-18T11:18:19","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T19:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=6856"},"modified":"2013-12-18T11:18:19","modified_gmt":"2013-12-18T19:18:19","slug":"the-progressive-reality-is-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-progressive-reality-is-here\/","title":{"rendered":"The Progressive Reality Is Here"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The Republicans are feeling confident these days. The slow-motion debacle of Obamacare promises to keep that albatross around the necks of the Democrats at least through next year\u2019s midterm elections. The IRS, NSA, and Benghazi scandals are still simmering, and any day new information may emerge that puts them back on the front page. Obama\u2019s disapproval rating is at 53.4%, according to the\u00a0RealClearPolitics<\/a>average of 11 polls. The Republican Party\u2019s approval numbers are still lower than Democrats\u2019, but they are trending up while the Dems are moving down.<\/p>\n

The recent budget deal passed in the House supposedly augurs well for the Republicans as well. Many see the bipartisan agreement to fund government spending for two years as a tactical victory that takes the bad public relations of a government shutdown off the table, thus keeping the focus on the Obamacare disaster. Growing more confident, the \u201cestablishment\u201d Republicans are marginalizing the Tea-Party \u201cextremists\u201d who generate so much bad press for the GOP. Or as the Huffington Post gloated, House Speaker John Boehner \u201cwas at least declaring war on the well-funded agitators\u201d who \u201cjumped the shark\u201d by opposing the deal.<\/p>\n

The Republicans may have achieved a tactical victory, but only time will tell if it translates into taking back the Senate and the presidency. But even if they do, it is still unlikely that they will achieve any meaningful reforms that can reign in the federal leviathan, seriously reduce metastasizing debt and deficits, or fix the looming disaster of unfunded entitlement liabilities. For the fact is, the Progressive vision now a century old has won the political debate over the power and goals of the federal government.<\/p>\n

The Progressive agenda starting with the administration of Theodore Roosevelt is now political reality. The Constitutional idea of a limited federal government checked and balanced by Congress and the sovereign state governments\u2013\u2013the obstacles to Progressive ambitions to guide the evolution of the nation toward greater \u201csocial justice\u201d and fiscal equality\u2013\u2013is now a distant memory. Most people assume that the job of the fed is to \u201csolve problems\u201d through a vast bureaucracy of technocrats. The notion that state and local governments, or the institutions of civil society perhaps should have the responsibility to \u201csolve problems,\u201d gains little traction among the mass of citizens, especially when it comes to mitigating the slings and arrows of human existence.<\/p>\n

As a result of this assumption, the size and coercive concentrated powers of the federal government at the expense of state governments and individuals alike have grown to an extent that would have shocked the Founders. As of January 2012, the federal government employed 2.3 million workers, excluding military personnel, at a cost of $200 billion a year. Total federal spending in 2013 was $3.5 trillion, a 40 percent increase over the last decade. Equally significant is the intrusive, coercive regulatory apparatus that has followed this expansion of the federal government. In 2012, the Federal Register, which publishes proposed new rules and final changes to existing rules, comprised 78,961 pages. The Code of Federal Regulations, which publishes general and permanent rules and regulations, totaled 174,545, with over one million individual regulatory restrictions. Just the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed in 2010 is up to nearly 14,000 pages of rules\u2013\u2013and is only 39 percent complete. The\u00a0Competitive Enterprise Institute<\/a>\u00a0puts the total cost of complying with all these rules and regulations written by anonymous, unaccountable federal bureaucrats at $1.8 trillion. As Robert Nisbet writes in his invaluable\u00a0book<\/a>\u00a0The Present Age<\/i>, \u201cThere isn\u2019t an aspect of individual life, from birth to death, that doesn\u2019t come under some kind of federal scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

This expansion, moreover, has come under Republican administrations as well as Democratic ones. The Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s some 7000 rules cost $353 billion a year. Just six proposed new rules could cost between $36 and $111 billion, according to the EPA\u2019s own lowball estimate. The legislation establishing the EPA was signed by Richard Nixon. Or take Social Security Disability Insurance. The number of workers receiving disability insurance has increased from 2.9 million in 1980 to 8.8 million in 2012. In 2013 SSDI will cost around $150 billion, a trend that will leave the program insolvent in 2016. This increase is mostly the result of the loosening of medical eligibility requirements to include more subjective conditions such as mood disorders and musculoskeletal problems. This change was legislated under the Social Security Disability Benefits Reform Act of 1984. That legislation was signed into law by Ronald Reagan. More recently, George W. Bush signed into law the Medicare Prescription Drug Act of 2006, which will cost $549 billion between 2006 and 2015.<\/p>\n

The last three examples demonstrate that bigger government has been driven by a relentless expansion of entitlement spending both by increasing the number of recipients of existing programs, and by creating new ones. But as everyone knows, spending on entitlement programs is on a path to national bankruptcy due to 76 million Baby Boomers retiring at a rate of 10,000 a day. In 2012, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and other health spending made up 45 percent of the $3.6 trillion budget, with another 19 percent going to federal employee retirement and benefits, veterans\u2019 benefits, and anti-poverty programs such as food stamps and welfare. Add in the costs of servicing the $17 trillion in debt necessary for financing all this largesse, and by\u00a02050<\/a>\u00a0just health care entitlements alone will consume every dollar of federal taxes.<\/p>\n

Here too Republicans, when they haven\u2019t been creating new programs, have at best attempted to cut back\u00a0increases<\/i>\u00a0in spending, rather than holding spending flat or reforming programs to decrease spending. As for questioning the existence of such programs, that is the fast track to political suicide. Indeed, just recommending modest reforms will bring down on any politicians charges of heartless indifference to the old and poor. Just ask Paul Ryan, whose 2012 budget that called for entitlement reform earned him a starring role in an attack ad in which he pushed a granny in a wheelchair over a cliff.<\/p>\n

Finally, all this largesse is funded by a federal income tax that is a mechanism for the redistribution of property that troubled critics of democracy from the ancient Greeks to the American Founders. The U.S. has one of, if not the most, progressive tax rates of the world\u2019s 24 richest countries. This progressivity of U.S. income taxes results in a redistribution of wealth from higher income to lower income citizens, even taking into account payroll and state taxes. According to the\u00a0Tax Foundation<\/a>, \u201cThe typical family in the lowest 20 percent in 2012 (with market incomes between $0 and $17,104) pays an average of $6,331 in total taxes and receives $33,402 in spending from all levels of government. Thus, the average amount of redistribution to a typical family in the bottom quintile is estimated to be $27,071. The vast majority of this net benefit, a total of $21,158, comes as a result of federal policies.\u201d The top 20 percent, on the other hand, paid $87,076 more in taxes than it received in government spending, while the top one percent paid $867,473 in taxes and received $55,078 in spending. In 2012, about $2 trillion was distributed via entitlement programs and tax credits from the top 40 percent to the bottom 60 percent of taxpayers.<\/p>\n

The truth is, we all have become a \u201cnation of takers,\u201d as Nicholas Eberstadt documents in his important\u00a0book<\/a>. We all consider normal a gigantic federal government of bureaucrats and technocrats whose job is to redistribute property in order to finance a vast network of entitlement spending from which most of us benefit either directly or indirectly. Beneficiaries of these programs have powerful lobbies that monitor and punish any politician who dares challenge this status quo. Just consider how easy it has been to marginalize the Tea Party as racist extremists, the only political organization calling for the return to the limited government of the Constitution, the reigning in of unsustainable debt and deficits, and the reform of entitlement programs so that only the truly needy are served. The existence of a vast constituency for government handouts has enabled this demonization of the only people crying \u201cIceberg ahead!\u201d<\/p>\n

Other Republicans may believe that once they return Congress and the Presidency to the Republicans\u2013\u2013something they say the polarizing Tea Partiers make difficult, if not impossible\u2013\u2013then they will turn to addressing the coming debt-deficit-entitlement crisis. Perhaps they are right. I hope they are right. But history gives us little hope that they will achieve anything other than a slow-down of the disaster. Not because they are \u201cestablishment\u201d insiders or liberal wolves in conservative sheep\u2019s clothing, but because not enough American people are ready yet to face reality and accept the sacrifices we\u2019re all going to have to make to right our fiscal ship. Until then, the Progressives will keep winning no matter which party is in power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine\u00a0 The Republicans are feeling confident these days. The slow-motion debacle of Obamacare promises to keep that albatross around the necks of the Democrats at least through next year\u2019s midterm elections. The IRS, NSA, and Benghazi scandals are still simmering, and any day new information may emerge that puts them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,247,117,187],"tags":[42,77,897,693,129,205,67],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1MA","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8377,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/republican-senators-and-the-battered-wife-syndrome\/","url_meta":{"origin":6856,"position":0},"title":"Republican Senators and the Battered Wife Syndrome","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"What the confirmation of Loretta Lynch really means. by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/ Front PageMagazine [1]For 6 years Barack Obama in word and deed has battered the Constitution and slapped around the Republicans. Abetted by his Luca Brasi, Harry Reid, he has run roughshod over the separation of powers and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Contributors"","block_context":{"text":"Our Contributors","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3812,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/homer-economics\/","url_meta":{"origin":6856,"position":1},"title":"Homer Economics","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society The showdown between public employee unions and cash-strapped state governments on display in Madison should be bad news for President Obama and the Democrats. While millions of Americans are unemployed, and those lucky enough to have jobs pay for their retirement and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1426,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/moral-equivalence-is-moral-evasion\/","url_meta":{"origin":6856,"position":2},"title":"Moral Equivalence Is Moral Evasion","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The failure of the Congressional budget \u201csuper-committee\u201d to address our geometrically expanding debt and deficits should surprise no one. From the beginning the committee was political theater designed to create the illusion of action when the will to act is missing. Unfortunately, this perennial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6995,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/republicans-go-on-an-immigration-reform-bender\/","url_meta":{"origin":6856,"position":3},"title":"Republicans Go On an Immigration Reform Bender","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine\u00a0 Rather than twisting the political knife in the gaping wound that is Obamacare, House Republicans are off on a \u201ccomprehensive immigration reform\u201d toot. The latest news has the Speaker putting off any action for now, and waiting until after the midterm elections in order\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Immigration"","block_context":{"text":"Immigration","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/immigration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/519px-Greatwall_large-259x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6883,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/2014-year-of-decision\/","url_meta":{"origin":6856,"position":4},"title":"2014: Year of Decision","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine\u00a0 This year we will see if America is still a center-right country, or if Obama\u2019s two terms will mark a historic shift to the left. History and recent events give cause for optimism, subject, of course, to unforeseen events. The champions of big government,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2355,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-new-york-times-resident-voodoo-statistician\/","url_meta":{"origin":6856,"position":5},"title":"The New York Times’ Resident Voodoo Statistician","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Another rational liberal can't think straight. by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The\u00a0New York Times\u2019 resident voodoo statistician, Charles Blow, is at it again, using \u201cscientific\u201d polling data as an excuse to indulge ideological prejudice. The poll in question profiled people regarding the current health-care debate, and Blow doesn\u2019t like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2009"","block_context":{"text":"August 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/august-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6856"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6857,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6856\/revisions\/6857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}