The Welfare-Warfare State

The Welfare-Warfare State
How it works
by Justin Raimondo
As I write, the House of Representatives is passing a "supplemental" war-funding bill – an event that one would think ought to be the occasion for a renewed debate on the war, whether to end it or, as John McCain would like, to escalate it. One, however, would be quite wrong. The halls of Congress are virtually silent, this election year, as a war the American people oppose continues and threatens to spread. As for the discussion in the media: check out this piece in The Politico – which is chock full of discussion about the bill's non-war related add-ons, and barely mentions the war as an issue, except as a bargaining chip.

The Democrats have struck a deal with the White House, essentially giving Bush everything he wanted in terms of more money for his war, and more authority to conduct it as he sees fit, in return for increased social welfare spending. The libertarian social theorist Murray N. Rothbard coined a very useful term to describe what is happening, in this instance: he dubbed modern America a "Welfare-Warfare State," and surely this Democratic deal with the Devil shows how it works in practice.

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