Recent John Locke Foundation Headliner Timothy P. Carney explains in a Washington Examiner “Beltway Confidential” blog entry one of the consequences of government growth: more wealth for the well-connected.
Increasing government power gives more influence to the politically connected, which is often whoever can hire up the most ex-Senators and cabinet members-turned lobbyists. That’s never Mom n Pop.
George Will’s latest column waxes eloquently on this theme. ,,,
… Will mentions sugar subsidies, but he could have mentioned the ethanol mandate benefitting the likes of Archer Daniels Midland, or the Export-Import Bank benefitting the likes of Boing, or green loan guarantees subsidizing Solyndra, or nuclear loan guarantees benefitting Southern Company, or wind-mill tax credits benefitting the likes of General Electric, or tax credits and eminent domain benefitting developers, and I could go on….
But Will also makes an important point often overlooked:
Not only does redistributionist government direct wealth upward; in asserting a right to do so, it siphons power into itself.
Increasing government power, increasing the influence of lobbyists, increasing business dependence on government — all of these things benefit lawmakers in their efforts to win reelection and get rich.
