When I was at lunch today, Walter Williams (filling in for Rush Limbaugh) said something wonderful.

He was discussing governmental redistribution of wealth, wherein money that might have been spent on a shovel instead is confiscated in taxes and given to someone else for cheese. That's great for the guy with the cheese, but it could put the shovelmaker out of business.

"Politicians love a visible beneficiary and an invisible victim," Williams said.

It's perfectly true. The money the government takes from you and puts towards its own particular ends is money that some other business or businesses will not be getting from you. But since we don't know who that guy is, the politician gets the credit for wherever the money does go, without the consequences for taking it from where it didn't go.