IPI PolicyBytes

  
 
 

Home Home

  
New Peter Ferrara Op/Ed: The Conservative Welfare State July 2nd, 2008
IPI director of entitlement and budget policy Peter Ferrara is featured today in the American Spectator with a compelling new op/ed, “The Conservative Welfare State.”

In the piece, Ferrara writes:

“Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam argue for restoring the Republican Party through a new activist government agenda focused on addressing the problems and concerns of the working class. The failure to decisively win over the working class is what has prevented Republicans from winning a true governing majority, they argue. The new agenda, they say, should include subsidies and policies to strengthen marriage and the family, and promote having children.

Douthat and Salam have written yet another book advocating the complete revision of conservatism based on embracing rather than rejecting Big Government: Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream. But as editors at the Atlantic magazine, they are really part of the newly emerging neoliberalism in various new institutions and projects in Washington. They draw on the ideas and thinking of this neoliberal crowd, the future heart of the Democrat party, rather than the conservative and free market think tanks and institutions that form the intellectual base of the Republican Party.

Yet, as a libertarian and supply-sider, I still accept their basic premise that conservatives and Republicans should focus on policies that would win over the working class (though we have a style problem among the upper classes that needs to be addressed as well). I even accept that we need to adopt policies that strengthen marriage, the family and child bearing. America has barely avoided so far the collapsing demographics of Europe that has already begun phasing out the social culture and heritage of the old continent. We still have the chance to avoid that fate in America.”


To read the full piece, please visit the American Spectator online.

Posted in  Entitlement Reform  || 0 Comments »
Author: Erin Humiston || Location: Lewisville, Texas, USA

 

  
 
July 2nd, 2008

New Peter Ferrara Op/Ed: The Conservative Welfare State

Posted in  Entitlement Reform 
Author: Erin Humiston || Location: Lewisville, Texas, USA

IPI director of entitlement and budget policy Peter Ferrara is featured today in the American Spectator with a compelling new op/ed, “The Conservative Welfare State.”

In the piece, Ferrara writes:

“Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam argue for restoring the Republican Party through a new activist government agenda focused on addressing the problems and concerns of the working class. The failure to decisively win over the working class is what has prevented Republicans from winning a true governing majority, they argue. The new agenda, they say, should include subsidies and policies to strengthen marriage and the family, and promote having children.

Douthat and Salam have written yet another book advocating the complete revision of conservatism based on embracing rather than rejecting Big Government: Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream. But as editors at the Atlantic magazine, they are really part of the newly emerging neoliberalism in various new institutions and projects in Washington. They draw on the ideas and thinking of this neoliberal crowd, the future heart of the Democrat party, rather than the conservative and free market think tanks and institutions that form the intellectual base of the Republican Party.

Yet, as a libertarian and supply-sider, I still accept their basic premise that conservatives and Republicans should focus on policies that would win over the working class (though we have a style problem among the upper classes that needs to be addressed as well). I even accept that we need to adopt policies that strengthen marriage, the family and child bearing. America has barely avoided so far the collapsing demographics of Europe that has already begun phasing out the social culture and heritage of the old continent. We still have the chance to avoid that fate in America.”


To read the full piece, please visit the American Spectator online.