In this piece, Richard Rahn compares the spending addition of most politicians in Washington to a drunk who is told that if he stops drinking, he’ll feel bad and therefore keeps boozing it up — which is killing him.

The spendaholics, desperate to shore up public support for their unwillingness to cut more than trivial amounts from the budget, have recently trotted out some reliable propagandists like Michael Moore to persuade people that we are not broke and can keep right on spending as long as “the rich” have to pay more in taxes. But rich people don’t waste money bailing out failed companies, conducting useless wars, and, oh, subsidizing cowboy poetry. Shouldn’t we take away the bottle from the pols?