From your citation:

Irving Kristol, in formulating the currently-dominant strain of Republican thought in his essay "A Conservative Welfare State", also wrote:

"The welfare state is with us, for better or worse, and...conservatives should try to make it better rather than worse."

The US is a socialist economy for large corporations, and a capitalist economy for individuals. "Welfare" usually means individuals, whereas the same thing for corporations is called a "subsidy" and "in the national inteerest".

The government subsidizes (socialism) the pharmaceutical industry, which then charges as much as it can to individuals (capitalism). It maximizes it's profit at the expense of a large number of people not being able to afford (capitalism) their subsidized (socialism) wares.

The agricultural industry is subsidized (socialism) so that farmers can charge what the market will bear(capitalism) in this country and abroad. Overseas, subsidized (socialism) US agricultural output is sold an low prices to drive domestic producers out of business, forcing local folks to become dependent upon US wares, at which time the prices are raised (capitalism).

Boeing, et al, get enough "time and materials" contracts to keep it going, Halliburton gets money shovelled to it. The "welfare" in this country is the socialist underpinnings of the mega-corporations.

Arf