Needed: Another Kind of Control

A CONSTANT THEME of discourse in the nation’s capital is the “uncontrollability” of the federal budget. It is a note so frequently sounded you might suppose the nation is on autopilot.

The way it works is this: Congress sets up benefit programs—unemployment insurance, food stamps, Medicaid—triggered by certain fixed criteria: joblessness, income levels, age, whatever. Those who meet the standards, regardless of their numbers or the resulting costs, are entitled to the benefits in question. Thus the designation of such programs as “entitlements.”

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M. Stanton Evans

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A CONSTANT THEME of discourse in the nation’s capital is the “uncontrollability” of the federal budget. It is a note so frequently sounded you might suppose the nation is on autopilot.

The way it works is this: Congress sets up benefit programs—unemployment insurance, food stamps, Medicaid—triggered by certain fixed criteria: joblessness, income levels, age, whatever. Those who meet the standards, regardless of their numbers or the resulting costs, are entitled to the benefits in question. Thus the designation of such programs as “entitlements.”