Maybe you didn’t believe me earlier this month when I issued a warning that the U.S. was “getting ready to go full Venezuela” on economic policy. After Biden’s speech a couple of nights ago, are you starting to get the picture?

All constraints are now lifted. All limits no longer apply. The federal government is now fully unleashed to solve all human problems and bring about perfect fairness and equity in human affairs. And to do so immediately if not sooner. All through the magic of a few trillion additional dollars (per year!) of federal spending. And while we’re at it, we’ll also solve the “climate emergency.” That will cost just another few incremental annual trillion. In the context of our new superpowers, that’s a rounding error.

The flood of proposed new programs and spending is so enormous as to make critiques of any individual items completely pointless. Is there a single one of these proposals that makes sense, or that actually might enhance the well-being of the American people? If so it’s such a small portion as to be insignificant.

Instead, I’ll address what I consider to be the elephant in the room, the obvious thing that somehow never gets mentioned. That is, why haven’t the vast numbers of already-existing federal social service programs and spending already succeeded in solving the problems they were created and funded to solve?

At the end of this post I have included a list of some 83 categories of federal “need based” spending programs. The list comes from a 2018 report by John Early written for the Cato Institute, but he took it from a document put together by the Congressional Research Service in 2013. In other words, I’m sure that there are plenty more of these things since this list was compiled. Note also that this is far, far, far from a complete list of federal income and in-kind distribution and benefit programs, since it specifically only includes those that are “need based.” Thus the list doesn’t even include the single largest federal income distribution program of all, which is Social Security. Aficionados of this subject will also recognize that large numbers of food and nutrition programs and job training programs are also missing, undoubtedly because they are not “need based.” (In this post back in 2014 I found a study that identified some 47 federal job training programs alone.).

Note that the Early list is broken down into two categories, those programs that figure “at least partially in CBO estimates" and those that are “not in CBO estimates.” The “estimates” referred to are estimates of income. The list of what CBO includes in “income” for its purposes differs from what is included by Census. The Census numbers, rather than those of CBO, are the source of things like our statistics on “poverty” and “income inequality.” Unlike CBO, Census does not include 5 of those first 7 categories in “income” in its measures. The excluded 5 are the EITC, SNAP, Medicaid, CHIP and the School Breakfast Program. If you wonder how the spending of a trillion dollars plus per year never seems to improve poverty or income inequality, this is how. The spending is simply excluded when the things we are trying to improve are measured.

But anyway, now that we’re in the Biden era, we’re not so much concerned any more with little problems like poverty. Now that all limits are removed, we can pass out money to everybody indiscriminately (child tax credits for all!), or to people predominantly in the upper half of the income distribution (free college!) or even the upper ten percent (electric car charging stations!).

Our metrics for measuring the effects of all this spending are wholly inadequate to the task. As readers here know, government spending is immediately counted into income and GDP figures, with the destructive effects only showing up later, sometimes many years later. How much of the current surge in reported economic activity is the consequence of the illusionary inclusion of the blowout spending as supposedly representing economic growth? It’s impossible to tell. Never forget that in Venezuela they were using similar measuring conventions to declare an “economic miracle” many years after the economic catastrophe had become clear to everyone on the ground.

Roger Kimball calls the Biden program “MAPA” — Make America Poor Again. I couldn’t say it better,.

Here is Early’s list of federal “need based” programs:

At least partially in CBO estimates:

1. Supplemental Security Income

2. Earned Income Tax Credit (refundable component)

3. SNAP (food stamps)

4. Medicaid

5. CHIP

6. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash aid

7. School Breakfast Program (free/reduced price components)

Not in CBO estimates:

8. Public Housing

9. Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers

10. Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)

11. Family Planning

12. Consolidated Health Centers

13. Transitional Cash and Medical Services for Refugees

14. Voluntary Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit—Low-Income Subsidy 15. Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program
16. Breast/Cervical Cancer Early Detection
17. Maternal and Child Health Block Grant

18. Indian Health Service
19. Additional Child Tax Credit
20. National School Lunch Program (free/reduced price components)
21. Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) 22. Child and Adult Care Food Program (lower-income components)
23. Summer Food Service Program
24. Commodity Supplemental
25. Food Program Nutrition Assistance for Puerto Rico
26. The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP)
27. Nutrition Program for the Elderly
28. Indian Education
29. Adult Basic Education Grants to States
30. Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant
31. Education for the Disadvantaged—Grants to Local Educational Agencies (Title I-A) 32. Title I Migrant Education Program
33. Higher Education—Institutional Aid and Developing Institutions
34. Federal Work-Study
35. Federal TRIO Programs
36. Federal Pell Grants
37. Education for Homeless Children and Youth
38. 21st Century Community Learning Centers
39. Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR-UP) 40. Reading First and Early Reading First
41. Rural Education Achievement Program

42. Mathematics and Science Partnerships

43. Improving Teacher Quality State Grants

44. Academic Competitiveness and Smart Grant Program

45. Single-Family Rural Housing Loans

46. Rural Rental Assistance Program

47. Water and Waste Disposal for Rural Communities

48. Public Works and Economic Development

49. Supportive Housing for the Elderly

50. Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities

51. Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance

52. Community Development Block Grants

53. Homeless Assistance Grants

54. Home Investment Partnerships Program (HOME)

55. Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA)

56. Indian Housing Block Grants

57. Neighborhood Stabilization Program

58. Grants to States for Low-Income Housing in Lieu of Low-Income Housing Credit Allocations

59. Tax Credit Assistance Program

60. Indian Human Services

61. Older Americans Act Grants for Supportive Services and Senior Centers

62. Older Americans Act Family Caregiver Program

63. TANF social services

64. Child Support Enforcement

65. Community Services Block Grant

66. Child Care and Development Fund

67. Head Start HHS

68. Developmental Disabilities Support and Advocacy Grants

69. Foster Care

70. Adoption Assistance

71. Social Services Block Grant

72. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program

73. Emergency Food and Shelter Program

74. Legal Services Corporation

75. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (employment and training component)

76. Community Service Employment for Older Americans

77. Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Adult Activities

78. Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Youth Activities

79. Social Services and Targeted Assistance for Refugees

80. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) employment and training

81. Foster Grandparents

82. Job Corps

83. Weatherization Assistance Program