And the Republican Party has aided and abetted this every step of the way. From the Heritage Foundation:
Nicholas Eberstadt details the exponential growth in entitlement spending over the past fifty years. Today, entitlement spending accounts for a full two-thirds of the federal budget, up from less than one-third in 1960.
Drawing on an impressive array of data and employing a range of easy-to-read, four color charts, Eberstadt shows the unchecked spiral of spending on a range of entitlements, everything from Medicare to disability payments. But he does not just chart the astonishing growth of entitlement spending, he also details the enormous economic and cultural costs of this epidemic.
He powerfully argues that while this spending certainly drains our federal coffers, it also has a very real, long-lasting, negative impact on the character of our citizens. Also included in the book is a response from William Gaston, in which he questions Eberstadt’s conclusions about the corrosive effect of entitlements on character and offers his own analysis of the impact of American entitlement growth.
