Socialism wrecks economies. Just look at Europe or, for a more extreme case, the former USSR or today's Cuba and North Korea. But there is an inexorable tendency for government to expand and consume more and more of the economy. That is what endangers America's financial future, and Steven Malanga writes about it in the City Journal.

For 50 years, public unions, health-care lobbyists, and social-services advocacy groups have doggedly been amassing power in state capitols and city halls, using their influence to inflate pay and benefits for their workers and to boost government spending. The bill for that influence is now coming due, and it is overwhelming state and local budgets...

The battle against...taxpayer initiatives will be brutal. Opponents have already spent an estimated $20 million attacking Governor Schwarzenegger's agenda and have pledged to spend as much as $100 million. The extraordinary resources that public-sector interests can now bring to such a fight illustrate how even in places where citizens have direct access to the ballot box, reform won’t be easy. Public-sector forces have spent the last 40 years gathering power and organizing effectively. The next year or so will show whether tax revolts at the local level are still possible in America and whether taxpayers can be the masters of the public servants they support.

If the Republican party does not look out for taxpayers, nobody will. We need to make sure that Republicans do their jobs and not emulate big-spenders like Don Young or Ted Stevens.

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