Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social Security program (FICA). Roosevelt promised:

1. Participation in the program would be completely voluntary. It’s no longer voluntary.

Unemployment is very real to the 14.9 million people who would like a job, but can’t find one. Businesses are in real danger of having to let even more workers go because of no real signs that the administration and Congress are going to do anything substantive to stimulate jobs and economic growth.

In President Obama’s inaugural speech he mentioned that the “stale political arguments” regarding the size of government are obsolete. From his perspective, it’s not the size of government– but whether government “works” that really matters. Well, if you are anything like me a red flag immediately went off when he said this.

The million-dollar grant focused on just four elementary schools, funding several after-school activities based on the Violence-Free Zone’s seven-year track record at that time. The initiative had successfully quelled gang banging and violence in DC’s Benning Terrace public housing complex and received national acclaim that led to its replication in cities like Dallas.

Government spending displaces private-sector activity. Every dollar that the government spends means one less dollar in the productive sector of the economy. This dampens growth since economic forces guide the allocation of resources in the private sector.

Dr. Jay P. Greene, endowed chair and head of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said the evaluation revealed children who participated in Head Start sustained virtually no lasting results.