Prescription drug subsidies & the gangster state.(Insider Report)

"[I]t is the tragedy of all collectivisms that the most unscrupulous and most ruthless member is most likely to rise to the position of leadership, certainly when leadership means power," reflected Dr. J.B. Matthews, one-time director of research for congressional counter subversion committees, in his memoir Odyssey of a Fellow Traveler. "The organization of vast political power and its successful retention in a single hand is more likely than not to put a premium upon qualities which we commonly associate with the 'big shots' of gangsterism."

Harvard Professor Pitirim Sorokin made much the same observation in a survey of rulers throughout history, noting that "the rulers of the states are the most criminal group in a respective population." And Mark Twain was on the same wavelength when he described Congress as our "distinctly native American criminal class."

In light of the foregoing wisdom, it's not surprising to learn that gangster tactics were used by the Republican Party leadership to pass the landmark Medicare prescription drug legislation--a major new entitlement that will cost $400 billion over the first 10 years, and possibly much more if the new law is amended in the meantime. Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas) has described this legislation as "the single largest expansion of the federal welfare state since the Great Society programs of the 1960s." The administration of George W. Bush desperately wanted the new entitlement program as a way of securing the senior citizen vote in 2004, even though it would leave future generations burdened with unpayable debt.

To give the president time to pressure conservative holdouts, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) prolonged the roll-call vote ...