Quoting Russell Coker (russell@coker.com.au):
That seems a good summary, welfare helps the economy and has been proven to do so for 170 years. The libertarian thing is like a cult, it's clearly not working well for the US, apart from the 1%.
With the possible exception of Paul Ryan and some delusional teabaggers, nobody in the USA believes the liberatarian thing -- nor has done so for well over 80 years. The ones who go around saying 'Get government out of lives, but don't allow the evil politicians to cut Social Security or Medicare' are pretending to hew to the libertarian thing, but That Word Does Not Mean What They Think It Means. Shutting down the welfare state has been a dead-letter since the early days of FDR. The USA _is_ a modern welfare state, and nobody except a few loons wants it to be otherwise, though they may claim to for reasons of ideological appeal.