Although conservatives are commonly characterized as being against welfare and government intervention in the economy, nothing could be further from the truth. But don’t take my word for it: Just look at the latest plan put out by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a beltway conservative think tank.
According to AEI’s Organization and Purposes:
The American Enterprise Institute is a public policy think tank dedicated to defending human dignity, expanding human potential, and building a freer and safer world. The work of our scholars and staff advances ideas rooted in our belief in democracy, free enterprise, American strength and global leadership, solidarity with those at the periphery of our society, and a pluralistic, entrepreneurial culture.
We are committed to making the intellectual, moral, and practical case for expanding freedom, increasing individual opportunity, and strengthening the free enterprise system in America and around the world.
According to the think tank’s president, Robert Doar: “AEI is a community of scholars and supporters dedicated to tackling our nation’s greatest challenges by producing work that promotes our institute’s core values: free people, free markets, and limited government.”
So why would such an organization put forth a plan for a conservative cradle to grave welfare state?
This conservative plan is titled American Renewal: A Conservative Plan to Save the Nation’s Finances and Strengthen the Social Contract. The editors are former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, “a distinguished visiting fellow in the practice of public policy at AEI,” and Angela Rachidi, “a senior fellow and the Rowe Scholar in poverty studies” at AEI.
The purpose of American Renewal “is to promote thoughtful and informed discussions, offer serious policy solutions, and demonstrate real reasons for hope.” If “we stabilize our debt, revitalize our economy, and restore the promise of upward mobility, we will be the authors of a great new chapter in the remarkable American story.”
American Renewal contains 16 chapters, each beginning with an opening statement and three or four bullet points summarizing the chapter contents and most ending with a conclusion.
The introduction by Paul Ryan sets the stage for the conservative cradle-to-grave welfare state. Policymakers need to “enact crucial reforms that would preserve retirement and health security for all Americans, secure a vibrant safety net that helps people rise, and support an economy that grows and increases the living standards of all citizens.” The mission of our “essential” government programs does not have to be sacrificed. To accomplish these essential objectives, “we must reform and redesign an array of federal government programs.” The book’s chapters “offer a sweeping set of policy proposals from 19 scholars—including 16 from the American Enterprise Institute—that seeks to reform the social safety net, America’s major entitlement programs, the tax code, and our monetary system.” Then follows a brief summary of each of the chapters.
I can summarize the entire American Renewal plan in seven statements, all based on proposals in the plan:
- Medicare and Medicaid should be reformed, modernized, and simplified.
- Social Security should be reformed by introducing a minimum benefit, scaling down the maximum benefit that Social Security pays, introducing mandatory retirement-plan coverage and participation, and scaling up the contribution rate.
- The federal government should have a safety net that promotes work and marriage through refundable tax credits and childcare subsidies.
- The federal government should fund generous education savings accounts, allowing parents to spend on a wide range of educational goods for their children and supporting parents raising their children.
- All children should be provided substantial vouchers to attend private schools of their parent’s choice.
- The United States should have a national family leave policy that offers six to eight weeks of paid family leave.
- The tax code should be reformed, but remain progressive — including broadening the tax base; reducing or eliminating tax deductions, exemptions, and credits; expanding the refundable earned income tax credit; and instituting a carbon tax.
AEI is a well-respected conservative think tank with annual operating revenues of over $70 million, most of which comes from individual contributions. Yet, at the root of all these proposals is the idea that the federal government should take money from some Americans and transfer it to other Americans in the form of cash, EBT cards, grants, services, vouchers, or subsidies.
How do these conservative proposals differ from liberal proposals for a cradle-to-grave welfare state?
They don’t.
What happened to the conservative mantra of fidelity to the Constitution, federalism, limited government, fiscal conservatism, private property, less government, lower taxes, individual freedom, the free market, and free enterprise? How are any of these things compatible with the proposals in the American Renewal plan?
They aren’t.
The conclusion is inescapable: conservatives are welfare statists just like liberals, progressives, Democrats, and socialists. They have no philosophical objection to the federal government’s plundering of some Americans for the benefit of other Americans and bureaucrats who administer wasteful and inefficient government programs. Their only arguments with liberals concern the amount of the welfare, the qualifications to receive the welfare, or the work requirements necessary to continue to receive some forms of welfare. The legitimacy of the government providing welfare is never questioned.
The founders had a very different view. No American should be forced to pay for the health care, retirement, education, family leave, or childcare of any other American. All charity should be private and voluntary.
The post The Conservative Cradle-to-Grave Welfare State appeared first on The Future of Freedom Foundation.
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