It’s not too often that I get to read about my favorite thinktank in the student paper. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised to see this article in the Daily Cal:

Federal Pell Grants, meant to ease booming student fees and tuition, could actually be responsible for growing fees, according to a report released yesterday.

The report, issued by the Cato Institute, a public policy research foundation, concludes that funneling more federal aid to students is increasing the demand for higher education and, in doing so, unintentionally driving up the price of college.

And look who’s on the wrong side of the issue:

The study comes on the heels of President Bush’s effort to boost the maximum Pell Grant by $500 over the next five years.

I also found it ironic to see this article sharing the front page:

A new Berkeley housing and healthcare program got a $1.4 million jump-start Tuesday when nearly $8 million in federal funding for homeless services was allotted to Berkeley agencies.
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The funds come as part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s annual Continuum of Care funding, which totalled a record $1.4 billion nationwide.

Look who shows up again:

Bush said the high amount of funding allocated to California is “a credit to the success of many of their programs.”

So in the first case, we see that welfare doesn’t work at all and only serves to make things worse. What we have here is a “welfare feedback loop” where more government money just increases the demand for even more government money. It’s a viscious cycle. And one can argue that it isn’t the role of the government to provide these services in the first place. So cheers to Cato and the Daily Cal for bringing this issue to our attention. Jeers to President Bush for showing his big government tendencies once again (stick to Social Security and tax reform instead).