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Today’s news that for-profit colleges accused of fraud are still receiving Federal funds points to the great irony that exists in the nation’s politics viz a viz the disbursement  of government funds. The billions these “educational institutions” receive might, in a certain view, be considered welfare. Why not, then, do as states such as Tennessee do, and require drug testing of school officials as a condition of receiving the funds? There is also the matter of unintended consequences: When the Feds assumed the responsibility of student loans themselves, thereby eliminating financial institutions who had previously administered such aid, they inadvertently created a perverse incentive for rent-seeking financial players to get into the education business. Many of these for-profit schools have shockingly poor graduation rates, with the student drop-outs holding the bag on the loans while college officials dance to the sound of ka-ching, ka-ching.

Welfare is a word often used with a pejorative connotation in legislatures around this country. Funny how it’s never applied to the billions of dollars in handouts the Federal and state governments present to certain corporate interests. Can you say Medicaid billing fraud? How about the privatization of state prison systems?  I find myself missing The Wastebook, the listing of waste in the Federal budget issued annually by now-retired Senator Tom Coburn, the crotchety Oklahoma Conservative.

Excuse me while I go research how many unwanted F-35 fighter jets are in the House’s proposed Defense budget.