Civil War Pension in 2020! History of America’s Entitlement Programs

My friend used to say that Revolutionary War soldiers live forever. Had he been alive now, he would have said they multiply with time. — John Quincy Adams

IN THE NEWS:

Build Back Better Not Uttered

On the morning of President Biden’s State of the Union Address, a full-page Paid Advertisement appeared in the Wall Street Journal print edition, with the following headline: “Build Back Better Is Wrong For America” See WSJ, 3/1/22. This ad was signed by 373 economists, including a Nobel laureate, heads of U.S. economic institutions such as former Fed members, and professors from prestigious universities, all of whom denounced President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda and disagreed with the claim that it would alleviate the pains of inflation.

Although the President did not specifically mention Build Back Better, he tried to make the case at least about parts of his $2.2 trillion social spending program.

Senator Joe Machin, who had wrung the death knell to the Build Back Better program, was not moved by President’s attempts at the partial revival of this program, and the Senator said this: “I’ve never…