Balancing the Federal Budget: What Would Jesus Cut? | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary

Balancing the Federal Budget: What Would Jesus Cut? | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Those on the religious left tend to miss the distinction between moral and political imperatives. Many of them are admirable individuals who live their principles, but that doesn't mean they are entitled to force others to live by those same principles. Which is typically what government is about.

For instance, there's no doubt that Christians (and Jews, who set practices upon which the early Christians relied) must be concerned about the poor. But no one should mistake taxation as compassion. In this regard the religious left shares much with President George W. Bush, who believed that giving away other people's money made him a 'compassionate conservative.'"

"Unfortunately, many government programs don't work. Food Stamps, foreign aid and Head Start are not exempt from problems. Any system based on spending someone else's money suffers from limited accountability. Indeed, government agencies often profit — i.e., received increased budgets — if they fail to solve problems."

"many anti-poverty programs are really welfare for the better off. For instance, federal housing programs are notorious for aiding developers. So-called 'Food for Peace' was created to dump domestic agriculture surpluses overseas, inadvertently routinely ruining poor farmers in other lands."