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violated the Constitution’s 10th Amendment, which prohibits action by the federal government not specifically enumerated in the Constitution. The Supreme Court found Social Security constitutional by offering a new, sweeping understanding of the constitution’s “general welfare” clause in Article 1, Section 8: “The Congress shall have Power To Lay and collect Taxes ... (to) provide for the common Defence and general welfare.” General welfare had always been understood to be about implementation of explicit authorities enumerated in the Constitution. Now general welfare
could be just about anything the congress wanted to do. Helvering v. Davis and Social Security opened the door to today’s modern welfare state. Social Security was the nation’s first “transfer payment” program, in which one set of taxpayers could be taxed and that revenue used to transfer to others for purposes that congress deemed in the “general welfare.” Per economist/blogger Scott Grannis, transfer payments now tally up to about $4 trillion annually, almost two-thirds of the federal budget. They now constitute over 20% of Americans’ disposable income, compared to 5% in the 1950s.
In case some still think Social Security is an investment retirement program, please think again. It is a welfare state transfer program, in which taxes those working now pay are used to make payments to those currently retired. Shortly after Social Security became law, there were more than 40 working and paying taxes for every retiree. Today, because of increasing life spans and decreasing birth rates, there are three. The Congressional Budget Office says that Social Security revenues will fall short by 23% of obligations by 2034. The welfare state idea does not
John Stossel
even have an American pedigree. It has its roots in 19th-century European socialism. Our fiscal problems today are not about accounting but about principles. We need to restore American principles of ownership and freedom. This would be a great boon. Particularly to low-income Americans that social welfare programs are supposedly helping. Per the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, if a single person earning 45% of national median income could invest 10% of their income in a diversified stock/ bond portfolio over a 40-year working life, rather than paying Social Security taxes, they could purchase an annuity at retirement worth $37,784, compared to $11,923 that they would get from Social Security. With all the cries about the wealth gap in the country, per the Federal Reserve, only 34% of black households, and 24% of Hispanic households, own stocks, compared to 61% of white households. By restoring American principles of ownership and freedom, we can fix our fiscal problems and make every American healthier and wealthier. Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show “Cure America with Star Parker.” To find out more about Star Parker and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com. Copyright 2023 by Creators.com.
Tragic devastation in Syria and Turkey
he tremendous devastation in Syria and Turkey as a result of the Feb, 6 earthquakes is an ongoing important focus of world action. The latest death toll is more than 35,000, and far more people have been injured. Over one million are estimated to have lost homes as a result of this disaster. These terrible numbers will continue to grow as relief work proceeds, rescuing the living, attending to the dead. U.S. relief and rescue efforts began almost immediately. These encompass nonprofit and volunteer initiatives along with government aid. The Biden administration is providing $85 million in emergency assistance. Elite highly-trained disaster assistance and response teams of the U.S. Agency for International Development have been working in the hardest hit areas. They have been joined by many other government agencies. Also providing help are Goleta-
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Social Security reform is about principles, not accounting
er CNN and other media outlets, when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ran his first campaign for Congress in 2012, he expressed support for “privatizing” Social Security. They predict, with little surprise, that this should provide red meat for attacks from former President Donald Trump and from Democrats, Star should Gov. Parker DeSantis announce a The author is presidential run. with the Center If indeed this for Urban is the case, it Renewal and adds credence Education to Nikki Haley’s slogan for her new campaign that we need a new generation of leaders. The president who brought us Social Security, Franklin D Roosevelt, told the nation in his first inauguration in 1933, in the dark days of the depression, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” President Roosevelt gets high marks for courage and leadership. The problem was not that he was bold. The problem was what he did. Today, again, the nation badly needs bold leadership. And what needs to be done is undo the damage that Roosevelt did back then. Most of the profound fiscal and social problems that we face today trace back to Roosevelt’s actions in the 1930s, most specifically his signing Social Security into law in 1935. The constitutionality of Social Security was challenged in 1937 in Helvering v. Davis. The argument was that Social Security
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based Direct Relief and Santa President Back Obama gave Barbara-based ShelterBox USA. priority to publicly criticizing As usual in humanitarian aid the government of Syria and around the world, the U.S. military encouraging regime change. The is playing a major role, often little well-intended rhetoric proved reported. extremely counter-productive, While these urgent needs are predictably. President Jimmy the priority, we should Carter took a similar also plan seriously approach to the world, about longer-time emphasizing morality over implications for U.S. reality. foreign policy. There Fundamental problems may be opportunities to with emphasis on human reconcile the tense, at rights above all else times violent relations regarding Syria is the between Syria and lack of any tradition Arthur I, Cyr Turkey. Combining of representative heart with head defines government. There are leadership. no desirable alternatives Over the past two decades, to President Bashar al-Assad. U.S. relations with both Syria The Syria government plays an and Turkey have been difficult, important role in resisting and to some extent understandably. defeating violent fundamentalist Syria remains a harsh, rigid movements, notably the Islamic dictatorship, long ruled by the State. Assad family. During the Obama Turkey is a pivotal nation, administration, our relations Western in practices but with became particularly strained. In a Moslem majority. After the Turkey, long-term ruler Recep revolution in the 1920s led by Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the become autocratic. government of Turkey became
constitutionally secular. Turkey commands vital sea lanes and trade routes, including the Strait of Bosporus. The nation pursues economic relationships with the states of the former Soviet Union. Moscow’s influence has deteriorated since invading Ukraine. Historically, TurkeyU.S. cooperation is strongly rooted. Turkey was engaged in Afghanistan, including military command responsibilities. During the first Persian Gulf War, U.S. B-52 bombers were deployed on Turkish soil, a risky move for that government. Turkey played a vital Allied role during the Korean War; the U.N. military cemetery at Pusan contains a notably large number of Turkish graves. This background is of great importance in this unstable region where Turkey-U.S. ties have been badly strained. Ankara rightly angrily opposed the Bush administration’s disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq. The U.S. government should do nothing that would appear to
be taking any national advantage of the terrible human tragedies unfolding in the wake of the devastating earthquakes. Work should remain focused on humanitarian relief. That is both ethical and smart. Our military has extraordinary capacities. The Pentagon has enormous assets to supplement and temporarily replace destroyed water and power supplies and provide medical services (including specialized surgical help) and to evacuate people injured or at risk of injury. Syrians, Turks, Americans and others should be assured this is the priority. Longer-term, this aids sensible, effective diplomacy. Arthur I. Cyr is author of “After the Cold War - American Foreign Policy, Europe and Asia” (NYU Press and Palgrave/Macmillan). He is also the director of the Clausen Center at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisc., and a Clausen Distinguished Professor. He welcomes questions and comments at acyr@carthage.edu.
The Left misrepresents conservatives’ views
don’t know who gets to conspiracy theories. Indeed, one hold President Biden’s should regard people who make cell phone these days, excitable claims about “tricklebut whoever runs his down economics” in much the Twitter account has been same way that one might regard hyperactive. people who make excitable claims The past few days have seen about QAnon or microchips in the a blizzard of tweets attacking water. all the left’s usual targets from Ronald Reagan was attacked Republicans and business to for “trickle-down economics” in their old favorite “trickle-down the 1980s, despite doing more economics.” than almost any other president This is a grotesque to reduce the tax burden on misrepresentation of what those with the lowest incomes. conservatives stand for. In over That did not stop President Bill 30 years in the policy wonk world, Clinton, who was able to run a I have not once heard budget surplus thanks to a conservative use the President Reagan’s tax Douglas term “trickle-down cuts the previous decade, Carswell economics” to describe from also using the term their strategy. in the 1990s. The term itself was invented How should the Right respond? by the Left in the 1930s to Keep cutting taxes for everyone. misrepresent Cal Coolidge’s The Left is always going economic strategy. Neither then, to use the myth of “tricklenor now, do conservatives believe down economics” to attack that the way to make poor people conservatives. The past richer is to make rich people even century or so shows that they richer. will relentlessly misrepresent Conservatives believe in — especially when there’s an cutting taxes across the board to election looming. the benefit of everyone — which But the “trickle down” attack is why in states like Mississippi, only ever gains traction when we conservatives have been so stop cutting taxes (See President proactive in cutting income taxes Bush the Elder’s one-term career for the broad mass of working for details). Keep on cutting. people. This has not stopped the Douglas Carswell is the president Left from repeatedly using the & CEO of the Mississippi Center for term to mischaracterize what Public Policy. This commentary conservatives actually stand for. was provided to the News-Press It is a form of misinformation, by The Center Square, a nonprofit up there alongside various other dedicated to journalism.
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Bureaucrats ban betting
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hat will happen in the future? Is there a way to know? There is,
maybe. One technique that predicts the future better than any other is prediction markets. The stock market is one. It lets people bet on the prospects of companies. The market often predicts wrong, but a rising stock price is a better forecaster of company success than 100 executives or 10,000 politicians. Falling stocks are good predictors, too. Prediction markets succeed because of “The Wisdom of Crowds,” which is also the name of a book by James Surowiecki. Crowds? That seems odd. Crowds can be like ... mobs! Stupid and out of control. “But if a crowd is big enough and diverse enough,” says Mr. Surowiecki, you just have access to so much more knowledge than you do if you ask an expert or even a team of experts. We saw this on the old TV program, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” A contestant could call an expert or poll the audience. “Experts” might be geniuses. TV audiences definitely weren’t experts, but they got the answers right more often than “experts.” Defense Department officials once wanted to use the same principle to open a market that might predict where a terrorist attack might take place. But then some ignorant senators called the idea “grotesque.” The Defense Department dropped the idea. Today politicians are killing another good idea: PredictIt. org. It’s a website that lets Americans bet on elections, like a political futures market. As I write, PredictIt’s bettors say Joe Biden has a 27% chance of being our next president; Ron DeSantis has a 21% chance; Donald Trump has a 20% chance. That’s useful information. But American bureaucrats working at a dreary agency called the Commodity Futures Trading Commission want it shut down. Why? Did PredictIt steal user funds? No. Did they lie to people? No. Harm anyone? No! In fact, its odds are cited by Please see STOSSEL on C4
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