The AP reports, "The welfare state is bigger than ever despite a decade of policies designed to wean poor people from public aid."   That is essentially an example of the Socialists thumbing their collective noses at conservatives who believe all entitlement programs - said to alleviate the pain and suffering of the poor - actually engender it.   Liberals would like us to stop trying to cut entitlements and just cave in to them.   But the conservative reaction is likely to be somewhat different.   Any self-respecting conservative understands that trying to eliminate entitlements one little piece at a time is akin to a junky trying to get off heroin by cutting out one intravenous injection at a time.   It just doesn't work.   Socailist liberals want to keep entitlements alive just long enough so that they can again make them into the accepted norm and then extend them to everything they can possibly dream up.   The crossroads are rapidly approaching at which time we are going to have to decide once and for all whether it is good and right to alleviate our own psychic pain and suffering by enslaving those on the dole into a permanent role as members of an underclass.

Labels: welfare state