Richardcyoung.com

  • Home
  • Debbie Young
  • Jimmy Buffett
  • Key West
  • Your Survival Guy
  • How We Are Different
  • Paris
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • The Swiss Way
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • Dick Young
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool
  • Anti-Gun Control
  • Anti-Digital Currency
  • Joel Salatin & Alfie Oakes
  • World Gold Mine Production
  • Fidelity & Wellington Since 1971
  • Hillsdale College
  • Babson College
  • Contact Us

The Living Dead

September 25, 2014 By Debbie Young

How in the world, you might ask, has the United States morphed into a massive welfare state along with a $3.5 trillion federal budget? The Cato Institute’s Michael Tanner answers that it’s not just that we constantly add new government programs, but that Washington is incapable of doing away with the programs in place. They become the living dead.

For example, in 1898 a tax on long-distance calls was enacted to help pay for the Spanish-American War. When was it repealed? 2006. In 1954, Congress gave wool and mohair subsidies to farmers as “strategic material” because it was used to make military uniforms. But it was not until 1993 that Congress awoke to the fact that military uniforms were made from synthetic fibers. So when did Congress kill the subsidies? It hasn’t. This year’s farm bill extends the wool and mohair subsidies until at least 2018 to the taxpayer tune of $5 million.

As Mr. Tanner points out about government programs, “No matter how outdated useless, wasteful or redundant programs may be, they come as close to immortality as possible.” Read more here about our government at work.

If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for the Richardcyoung.com free weekly email.

Related Posts

  • The Dead Are Dead
  • Mother Earth News
  • Grateful Dead: ‘Fare Thee Well’
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Debbie Young
Debbie Young
Debbie, our chief political writer of Richardcyoung.com, is also our chief domestic affairs writer, a contributing writer on Eastern Europe and Paris and Burgundy, France. She has been associate editor of Dick Young’s investment strategy reports for over five decades. Debbie lives in Key West, Florida, and Newport, Rhode Island, and travels extensively in Paris and Burgundy, France, cooking on her AGA Cooker, driving through Vermont and Maine, and practicing yoga. Debbie has completed the 200-hour Krama Yoga teacher training program taught by Master Instructor Ruslan Kleytman. Debbie is a strong supporting member of the NRA.
Debbie Young
Latest posts by Debbie Young (see all)
  • Allowing Free People to Make a Democratic Choice - June 20, 2025
  • Political Theater on Display: Padilla’s Wild Day - June 20, 2025
  • A Great Victory for Liberty - June 19, 2025

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • What Would Kennan Say about Ukraine/Russia?
  • The Four Most Important Words in Investing
  • Conflict Between Democratic Sovereignty and Transnational Progressivism (Globalism)
  • DONBAS: Russian Tanks Face Gauntlet of Death from Javelin Wielding Ukrainians
  • Ron Paul: “Freedom and Central Banking Are Not Compatible”
  • I Meant to Tell You My Recent “Survival Guy” Story
  • “I’m Having Major Surgery Tomorrow,” He Said
  • Hungarian Hardliner Viktor Orban Shows European Globalists the Way
  • Government Should Be Small, Laws Unobtrusive, and Men Left Alone
  • Who’d be Nuts Enough to Have Put Money into SVB?

Compensation was paid to utilize rankings. Click here to read full disclosure.

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report from Feb. 1987
  • America’s Energy Boom: Record Net Exports and Rising Renewables
  • Senate Passes First U.S. Stablecoin Regulation Bill
  • Game-Changing Vision: Meta and Oakley Unveil AI Performance Eyewear
  • A Great Victory for Liberty
  • Letchworth: Are You Living Your Best Retirement Life?
  • Job Openings Rise in Four States, National Rate Steady
  • Ethane Shipments Stall as U.S.-China Trade Tensions Rise
  • Historic Tax Cuts Across All States
  • Are You Familiar with the EF and Arithmetic?

RSS Yoursurvivalguy.com

  • Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report from Feb. 1987
  • Private Equity Is the Next Big Thing Coming for YOU
  • The Wildlife in Kansas
  • PRECIOUS: Silver and Gold
  • June Rage Gauge: Best Déjeuners in Paris
  • Letchworth: Are You Living Your Best Retirement Life?
  • Will SALT Kill the “One Big Beautiful Bill?”
  • You’ve Read the Last Issue of Intelligence Report: Back to Investor’s Yield
  • The Sound of Silence?
  • Are You Familiar with the EF and Arithmetic?

US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool

My Key West Garden Office

Your Retirement Life: Traveling the Efficient Frontier

Live a Long Life

Your Survival Guy’s Mt. Rushmore of Investing Legends

“Then One Day the Grandfather was Gone”

Copyright © 2025 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives