Cato Folks Talk Sense on Budget

There are two excellent posts on Dubya's proposed budget at the Cato@Liberty blog. The first, from Stephen Slivinski, cuts through the whining and hoopla, and does some simple calculations on the real (after-inflation) budget growth between FY2006 and (proposed) FY2008, and also between FY2001 and FY2008. He concludes:

Bush's new budget still does next to nothing to strip away most of the massive budget increases in domestic programs he signed into law since 2001. It's the fiscal equivalent of a recovering alcoholic patting himself on the back for merely drinking six beers a day instead of eight.

Being a perpetual Panglossian, I'm just happy that he's holding himself to six beers, rather than upping the ante to ten. But other than that, Stephen's on target.

The second article is from David Boaz, who's also unimpressed with both the proposed budget, and the headlines it's garnered in the MSM. (E.g., the Boston Globe: "Bush budget puts pinch on domestic spending") Quoting from an older article of his:

I think we have what dancers call a pas de deux going on here. Or maybe in honor of our Texas president and his aversion to all things French, we should just call it a Texas Two-Step: The president pretends to cut the budget, and Democrats pretend to believe him.

That's a broad bipartisan consensus! A uniter, not a divider!


Last Modified 2012-10-19 3:05 PM EDT

Arnold Kling on Liberaltarianism

Arnold Kling has a fine article at Tech Central Station outlining reasons why libertarians should maintain their ties to conservatives, instead of following the Brink Lindsey "Liberaltarian alliance" idea.

This is a wish-I'd-written:

I find it a challenge trying to persuade religious conservatives to loosen the relationship between their religious beliefs and their political agenda. However, I find it even more of a challenge to deal with the Left, where their political agenda is their religion.

Good point.


Last Modified 2012-10-19 3:05 PM EDT