Cloward & Piven, Task Forces, and Congressional Vacation

Heh.  George Will wraps this column up very nicely:

Year one of the Obama administration was devoted to deliberately exacerbating the fiscal crisis. The gusher of spending, combined with the new multitrillion-dollar health care entitlement, is half of liberalism's plan to radically and permanently increase government's grasp on the nation's wealth. As a response to the crisis, the task force would produce the other half.

Armies on the march are supposedly no match for an idea, especially a bad one, whose time has come. But what armies cannot defeat, monetary incentives might. So, the Gregg-Conrad legislation should be amended to include this language:

"During the life of this task force, which will perform Congress' fundamental duties, all senators and representatives will be considered on vacation and will not be paid. If the task force's recommendations are accepted by Congress, there will be no congressional pay until 2050."

This would be a Madisonian measure, altering incentives in order to encourage responsibility. Let's vote.

Do you know what this means? It means that George Will agrees with Glenn Beck on his central theory.  That there are forces, and they are currently in power, that are deliberately trying to permanently increase the government's role by bankrupting the nation into accepting it as its only choice.  George Will.

I suspect Will would try to distance himself from Beck.  But in substance, he's saying exactly what Beck is saying, and I agree with both of them.