"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic." Wise words, Ben Franklin -- wise words indeed.
As Tina Korbe elucidates over at HotAir, the President reelection effort has a far greater monetary force at their disposal than the mere $1 billion that will comprise his historic levels of campaign cash. Entitlement programs are effectively a method of keeping citizens on the political payroll -- handouts in exchange for votes. The most glaring problem, of course, is that handouts once doled out are rarely willingly relinquished, and the system is not sustainable. And while Democrats are certainly overwhelmingly guilty of expanding the welfare state for political gain, Republicans too are far from innocent.
To pull a line from the Gingrich playbook, the current executive is fundamentally unserious about major entitlement reform, and if we don't elect somebody who is, we're only hastening down our present course -- a slow but steady march to decline. Thanks for nothing, big government statists: