Across the pond where our former colonial rulers live, British Prime Minister Theresa May triggered a maelstrom of protest that threw the Tory Party in a crisis ahead of special elections June 8. What did she do? She proffered the heretical idea of scrapping a proposed cap on the out-of-pocket expenses of seniors who need long-term care. Her Tory predecessor David Cameron had promised to implement the cap by 2020 and May’s suggestions was a breach of faith, not just for her Labor opponents but even her Tory friends.
She beat a hasty retreat on that plan, but the problem for England’s welfare states is that it’s fast running out of other people’s money, to use the immortal words of another British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. And to deal with that situation, May is now proposing something even more intrusive, I note in my column at The Week.
She wants to be able to collect the state’s share of spending on the long-term care of seniors’ against the sale of their homes after they die. This might strike most people as defeating the whole purpose of a welfare state, but it does demonstrate the truth of the old adage that a government that is powerful enough to give you what you want is also powerful enough to take away what you’ve got.
Go here to read the whole thing.
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