Andrew Sullivan: "We Need to Take A Machete to Social Security"

By Ben Cohen

Andrew Sullivan's pig headed adherence to idiotic libertarianism is a habit he just cannot kick. His solution for the countries economic woes consists in part of cutting off vital support for the poor. He writes:

We need to take a machete to social security and Medicare and a very sharp scalpel to all domestic discretionary spending.

To be fair, Sullivan is not completely wrong, as he targets ludicrous military spending and aid to lackey countries:

And we need to think very hard about big withdrawals of troops in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and about the foreign aid we give Egypt and Israel. Between the boomers at home and the expanding, unending empire abroad, the next generation will have no sane fiscal future unless something is done very very soon.

Sullivan's problem is his inability to recognize the painful truth about Western economic development - that the free market has never existed, and economic growth is a result of protectionism, state planning and massive corporate welfare. Cutting welfare as a matter of ideology is just plain stupid - there is a need to be judicious in how tax dollars are spent, and that means supporting key sectors of the economy, and making sure people do not starve to death. George Bush made decisions based on ideology regardless of the results, a trait Sullivan despised. Why he continues to follow an ideology that has collapsed on itself is baffling to say the least.