What the Feds and Bernie Madoff Have in Common

Through the years, Bernard Madoff, the convicted ponzi schemer who defrauded his investors, ‘generously’ donated millions of dollars to charity – cancer research, hospitals, theaters, schools, and more. At least one of these charitable organizations invested with Mr. Madoff, where the invested funds disappeared.
But Madoff is not the only one who gives money to people after first taking it from them. Today’s political leaders win votes and plaudits by giving goodies to little Johnny, but they don’t bother to tell little Johnny that they’re putting it all on his credit card.
School is now back in session, and ‘thousands more students could be eating school lunch completely free,’ Jake Grovum reports for Stateline, ‘thanks to a four-year-old federal program that is finally expanding to all 50 states.’ (Finally!)
‘The expansion comes through the so-called Community Eligibility Provision, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010 as part of a broader school nutrition measure,’Stateline reports. ‘It opened the door for districts with free or reduced-price lunches to offer the meals to every student at the school, at no cost to them – no application necessary and regardless of household income. Under the community eligibility provision, the federal government pays for only a share of the expansion, leaving states to pay the balance.’

This post was published at Ludwig von Mises Institute on Tuesday, October 07, 2014.