As we all complain about the Government shutdown, I often wonder how many people actually understand why it is shut down. The answer is simply, “It’s the democrats being stupid again.” There are only a handful of presidents who have actually had ideas that have propelled our country in the right direction, and the two that stand out in my lifetime are Ronald Regan and Donald Trump. For 50 years, government has been trying to solve the problem of government dependency, but has done little to move the needle. Government dependency has been growing, and too many Americans now rely on government services for health care, education, income, and retirement. It has to make you wonder just how sustainable this dependency is and how it will impact our freedoms and responsibilities in the future.
The current government shutdown centers around healthcare costs and rightfully so, as ever since we heard the words from President Obama: “If you like the plan you have you can keep it. If you like the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor too. The only change you’ll see are falling costs as our reforms take hold.” Health care in America has been on the road to self-destruction as costs continue to rise exponentially each and every year. This message from Obama and his administration was repeated time and again but like so many government promises it was not kept, and today healthcare costs are so far off the charts that most Americans can no longer afford health insurance. While these costs continue to climb even higher the profits at health insurance companies are breaking records and health insurance for the average family is financially out of their reach.
We cannot continue to run 2 trillion-dollar deficits to support Obamacare, which has proven to be a failed system. It is time for reform, but it appears that the democrats don’t want reform and, in fact, want to expand the budget by 1.5 trillion to support this failed system and to pay for many who are not entitled to these benefits. We have truly become a welfare state, and I, for one, am pleased to see the government shutdown as it is long past the time to say, “NO MORE”. In the 4 years Biden was president, HHS spent well over $22 billion on illegals, and that is just the tip of the iceberg when you consider the billions in assistance they received from NGOs and other nefarious organizations.
It is not just illegals that are causing the dependency problems, as we have many U.S. citizens who don’t qualify for medical or SNAP benefits that are collecting them. By the next election, it is projected that a majority of Americans will depend on federal government services while the number of taxpayers supporting these services is shrinking. If we don’t do something soon, we won’t have to wait for the socialists like Mondani to take over our country; we will have already created our own socialist state through federal and state giveaway programs.
The question that remains is, how do we change our dependency policies to create a nation of workers instead of a nation of takers? I remember when I was growing up in the 1950’s there were no government programs like there are today so if you didn’t fend for yourself and work, there was a good chance you weren’t going to eat. I was 13 years old and will never forget what it was like to support my two siblings and stepfather, who suffered a broken back for over a year, by cutting lawns, shoveling snow, delivering newspapers, washing cars, or whatever would pay for dinner. It was one of my great lessons in life: if you don’t work, you don’t eat. Sometimes I wonder what happened to promoting individualism and encouraging self-sufficiency and personal responsibility to reduce reliance on government assistance. Why don’t we implement policies that empower families and individuals rather than creating dependency?
Let me tell you why: Once you give someone something on a consistent basis and don’t make them pay for it trying to take that something away is like pulling wisdom teeth out of an elephant. Just like when we give people free medical care through Medicaid expansion here in Idaho. The working taxpayers are penalized with higher taxes and costs because our legislators won’t remove these benefits as they are worried about the next election and opposition form those whose benefits were cut. I don’t know of any free government giveaway programs that have ever helped anyone become self-sufficient.
Government has enabled intergenerational patterns of welfare, creating cycles of dependency where benefits are passed down through generations, making it harder for families to break free from reliance on government aid. Welfare programs do not encourage self-sufficiency but instead stigmatize those who are on welfare and discourage them from pursuing opportunities for self-improvement. Instead of these giveaways, why aren’t we investing in job training and education programs that will equip individuals with the skills they need to find employment? Or how about work requirements that are flexible enough to allow recipients to get work experience while on an assistance program.
Those who live in the Treasure Valley are very fortunate because we have institutions like the Boise Rescue Mission that give people a hand up, not a hand out. Reverend Bill Roscoe, who runs the mission, has created a safe place for anyone who is ready, willing, and able to help themselves. This is a Christian-based ministry that has helped hundreds of those who were down on their luck and many locked into drug or alcohol addiction to find a new, productive life. If you wonder why we don’t have our streets full of homeless people camping in our parks and streets, it is because of organizations like the Bosie Rescue Mission.
America is still the land of opportunity as far as I’m concerned. A place where you can be whatever you want to be with a little hard work. Why do you think 12 million illegals crossed our border in the four years Biden was president? Truth be told, those illegals have taken many jobs that Americans could be doing, and they are working in many cases for a mere fraction of what these employers would have to pay U.S. citizens. How many illegals have gotten CDL licenses who can’t even read English?
I get tired of the bellyaching and complaining by Americans that things are tough, but I sure didn’t hear them complaining during Trump’s first term when inflation was 1½% and wages were the highest and unemployment the lowest in over 50 years. How soon we forget the four years of horror that Biden and the democrats gave us with climate change, DEI, and more regulations than you can shake a stick at. Trump has had 10 months to fix what took four years for Biden to break and for my money, he is doing a great job. Yes, the price of beef is up but I can still buy strip steaks for $8 a pound if I shop around and if I can’t find meat in the grocery store, there is still plenty of game out in our forests for the taking. Gasoline prices are starting to come down, and lower oil prices are the key to bringing the cost of everything down, but it takes a year or two to bring new oil wells online. We all need to have a little more patience and a positive attitude if we are going to Make America Great Again, so how about less griping and a little more patience to give Trump a chance to turn this country around.
“We Get the Government We Deserve”.
