Conservatives who advocate hawkish U.S. foreign policies might rethink their bellicose stance if they better understood the growth the welfare state. U.S. wars have contributed to numerous tools of Big Government, including the federal income tax, progressive taxation, tax withholding, the estate tax, gas taxes, the Internal Revenue Service, federal relief for the poor, public works, Social Security, government registration of marriages, public housing, wartime inflation, price controls, employer-based health insurance, banks bailouts, and more.

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