Why Politicians Hate the Trump Budget

The goal should be fewer people being dependent on government. But in the real world, it's the exact opposite.

by Richard Rahn
June 1, 2017

Which portion of government spending provides little or no value? The president just released his budget proposal, and the predictable chorus of complaints immediately began from those who want more spending for “whatever.”

A quarter of a century ago, I was leading an economic transition team in Bulgaria from communism to free-market capitalism. The Bulgarians planned to privatize a major chemical plant they had recently built for what would have been about a billion U.S. dollars today. We brought in international industry experts to make an estimate of its real worth.

The Bulgarians were understandably shocked when I had the unpleasant duty to inform them that the plant was essentially worthless. Their technology had already become obsolete.

They had lost their markets, which were primarily in the countries of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, after the collapse of communism. And their major raw materials, natural gas and petroleum, all had to be imported a…