A DIVIDED CONGRESS WON'T SLOW RUNAWAY SPENDING.

• Position: ECONOMICS

ELECTION RESULTS ARE rarely good news for libertarians--or for the economy.

The 2018 midterm election was no different.

The Republicans lost the House, an outcome they deserved thanks to their failure to repeal and replace Obamacare, their lack of opposition to President Donald Trump's destructive trade policies and the resulting $12 billion farmers' bailout, and their responsibility for the return of $1 trillion deficits three years ahead of schedule.

Republicans also picked up two more Senate seats, giving them a comfortable majority to confirm new Supreme Court justices and other federal nominees. But even though divided government is generally thought to be good for fiscal restraint, that might not be the case for the next several years. As the late William Niskanen of the Cato Institute demonstrated, the slowest rates of spending growth occur when the president is a Democrat and one or two branches of Congress are under Republican control. That's because when they are in the minority, Republicans suddenly remember how to be fiscally responsible and object to large and rapid spending increases.

Unfortunately, it is unlikely that we will get the reduction in government spending we now need. Trump has repeatedly said he will not touch two of the biggest drivers of our debt, Medicare and Social Security. And on this matter, Democrats are solidly in the president's corner. (While Trump has said he would be willing to cut Medicaid, there is no chance House Democrats will allow him to.)

Is there any silver lining? Maybe a faint one. Maybe.

A Democratic House might block the militaristic instincts usually exhibited by Republican administrations. It might also refuse to approve further military-spending boosts--unless, of course, such spending is offset with nondefense spending on education and infrastructure, or on any other of the Democrats' pet projects.

There's also a serious risk that this administration, under the influence of first daughter Ivanka Trump, will pursue a federal paid-leave mandate. Although such a policy would be detrimental to women--producing lower wages for everyone and, very likely, discrimination by employers against women of child-bearing age--House Democrats would support it.

One big winner of the midterms is...