How MAHA Fits with Classic Republican Strategy

Understanding Congress Podcast, March 2024

Go back to March 2024’s episode of Understanding Congress, where a Republican Congressman tells the truth about the federal budget.

In 1960, one out of every three federal dollars spent was spent taking from Peter to pay Paul or Paul’s expenses. That is, it was spent in entitlement transfer spending.

This is a vast difference in proportion to any other period of American history prior to the Cold War, way higher than the Founders would have dreamed for such a use of federal dollars.

Just a few decades later, that proportion of federal expenditure for such purposes doubled. It’s now over two dollars of every three spent that is just taking a dollar from one person and sending it over to another, without counting the chunk the federal agencies (and local, county, state) fees the government entities take for their services.

Everything else must fit within what’s left of the federal budget. Less than a third of all federal spending must go to pay interest , or servicing, of any federal debt — bonds sold under the full faith and credit of the United States to anyone around the world willing to buy and who want to cash them in. What else ? Defense, a classic federal expenditure that directly lines up with the design of the Framers of the Constitution. What else ? Interior, the Indian tribes, the national parks, the “environment,” education, foreign relations, agricultural programs, energy and so on.

In the two-third’s chunk of federal spending from Peter to Paul, a huge proportion of that is health care costs which are rising at rates that would have given the Founders heart attacks.

The MAHA movement fits nicely within the Republican strategy of reigning in entitlement spending because it takes a top-down and a bottom up approach to disciplining health care costs without negative health outcomes. It recognizes that a key—not the only one, to be sure, but a huge one—remains the fact that health care costs are importantly tied to chronic bad health, much of which can be improved.

There’s a lot more to be said about the use of the federal police power in a top down approach to discipline health outcomes and affect culture.

But as the Congressman says in the March 2024 episode of Understanding Congress, voters don’t want to be told there’s no more money to pay for what they think sounds like a great idea. To be voted out of Congress, if you have stupid or ignorant or uninformed or low attention-spanned, chronically distracted voters, which we do, all your Congressional opponent needs to do is the promise more things from the federal budget than you, regardless of the truth of whether the federal budget can (let alone should/is designed to) deliver. It’s like each election is about who promises more to be Santa Claus and the national Ombudsman wrapped up into one.

Smart voters know: if one of three federal dollars spent in 1960 went to transfer payments—a function the US Government was not designed for—and that proportion doubled in just a few decades, we can’t double that again. That’s mathematically impossible. Twice two-thirds is over 100% of the budget, and there is nothing in our actual world that makes any expenditure over 100% possible, because there’s no possible world in which that could happen.

Therefore, we can’t increase the proportion spent on “entitlement” transfer payments from Peter to Paul, as Democrats want, ad infinitum. Republicans know, we can and should, bring that proportion down, not up. Have federal expenditure proportions that fit the good design of the US Government’ purpose, which is not to be a bank or a payroll department for Christmas-all-year goodies and gifts, taking from some and giving to others. Instead, we should take section 8 of Article 1 seriously, focus on what government does best, to provide for the defense of the country against serious threats. The biggest threat is our dumb voters who can’t see that.

Republican politicians have the uncool job of having the courage, tenacity, and persuasive skills to help their voters see the path forward. MAHA helps takes the pressure off of that important task.