If you want redistribution, you better first produce growth. Which the Obama Democrats' policies have failed to do.

Which politicians do you trust more to micromanage your health care: federal or state? That’s the false choice presented by two versions of “federalism” intended to divide responsibility for health policy between the national government and the states.

Social Security may be more regressive than progressive, redistributing income from the poor to the rich.

The authors assess the importance of knowing as much as possible about how the current Social Security system redistributes money in practice and to whom.

Anew study, Income Redistribution from Social Security (AEI Press, February 2005), argues that Social Security may not redistribute money from the rich to the poor.

For some months now, President Obama has increasingly been couching his rhetoric in the language of fairness. But in recent weeks, a growing number of conservative elected officials have begun contesting Obama’s claim to be the arbiter of what constitutes fairness and taking the issue of fairness head on in public policy.

In recent months, electoral skirmishes and policy debates have hinged on the meaning of fairness. Defenders of free enterprise have often shied away from moral language, preferring to rely on facts, figures, or constitutional arguments to make their case. AEI president Arthur Brooks highlights free enterprise leaders who are changing, now making the moral case.

This analysis shows that income redistribution implications have had a strong and persistent effect on national policy.