“(T)he welfare state has expanded dramatically, to the point that nearly half of all Americans now get payments from the federal government. In sharp contrast to the Bill Clinton White House, which accepted limits on government largess, the newly emboldened progressives, citing inequality, are calling for more wealth transfers to the poorer parts of society, often eschewing the notion that the recipients work to actually improve their lives.”

— Joel Kotkin, executive director of the Center for Opportunity Urbanism, writing in the Orange County Register on how Barack Obama and the left are “downsizing the American dream.”

“Socialism — under whatever guise — is, in fact, old, tired, creaky, squalid, and failed. Where, pray tell, is its death panel?”

— J. Robert Smith, writing in The American Thinker, on the candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

“Under the new agreement, the United States will cease to enforce the sanctions against Iran by ‘non-U.S. persons.’ … (A) company owned by U.S. citizens that makes food-processing equipment located in Kansas City would still be prohibited from setting up a factory or sales office in Iran. However, a German or Chinese company making similar products will be allowed to invest in and set up operations in Iran, putting the U.S. company at a real disadvantage.”

— Richard W. Rahn, chairman of the Institute for Global Economic Growth, writing in The Washington Times on yet another unsavory aspect of the nuclear “deal” with Iran.

“It’s understood: In a free market, talent gets rewarded. Very few people have the skill to play basketball like LeBron James. And few people have the skill to run a complex, global multibillion-dollar corporation. So they get the mega paycheck, even though we’d all like to have it.”

— from a Chicago Tribune editorial on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s regulations requiring most publicly traded companies to calculate the ratio of total CEO compensation to the median compensation of all employees.

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