Now that Bernie and Elizabeth Warren are both starting to pull really well, the two of them combined well ahead of Joe Biden, the knives are coming out in the media. This morning on both MSNBC and CNN, commentators were complaining about how dramatically both of them plan to increase federal spending over the next decade.

Right now in the United States, federal spending is around 35% of GDP, or a bit more than a third of the economy. In Europe, across the entire European Union, federal spending is around 46% of the economy, or nearly half. The difference? In Europe, kids go to college for free; you never get a bill for healthcare, vision, or dental; you don't lose your home if you lose your job; and large numbers of people are not dying of suicide, gunshot, drug overdose, or alcoholism. Government is simply us taking care of ourselves. Americans need to figure this out...

-Thom