'The 2012 Index of Dependence on Government'

The 2012 Index of Dependence on Government - William Beach and Patrick Tyrrell
“Virtually no issue so dominates the current public policy debate as the future financial health of the U.S. government. Americans are haunted by the specter of enormously growing mountains of debt that suck the economic and social vitality out of this country. Only the intrepidly stagnant and jobless economic recovery garners more attention, and many are beginning to believe that even that sluggishness is tied to the nation’s growing burden of publicly held debt...Of course, the roots of the problems produced by the great and growing debt lie in the spending behaviors of the federal government. Annual deficits far greater than the government’s revenue are fueling explosive levels of debt. One such significant area of rapid growth is those programs that create economic and social dependence on government.”

Comment: Increased dependency on government programs causes far more harm than national fiscal suicide. It eats away at the very soul of a nation.