Copyright Arkansas Online
Schadenfreude: Nothing better captures the perverse pleasure that Democrats are deriving from the pain inflicted on our country caused by the government shutdown. Democrats precipitated this shutdown to force Republicans to back off efforts to turn around our suicidal growth of government spending and debt. They refused to get rid of $450 billion over 10 years in Obamacare premium subsidies that were enacted as temporary assistance during covid-19. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food assistance to almost 42 million Americans, is now forced to suspend payments, which will be partially covered with emergency funding. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told the press, "Republicans are willing to starve hungry children in this country and take away SNAP benefits." SNAP is another government program going back to the 1960s in which inefficient government largesse was sold as compassion. In 1970, there were 6 million Americans receiving the benefit. Today it is nearly 42 million. SNAP spending six years ago was $63.5 billion. Today it is nearly $100 billion. Per the American Enterprise Institute, "Less than half of able-bodied working-age SNAP recipients work, and many recipients receive benefits for years." According to AEI, SNAP is "one of more than 80 means-tested safety-net programs in the U.S. designed to alleviate hardship among low-income households." Clearly, the country's cultural and social problems and our fiscal problems go hand in hand. Various proposals have been put forth for reforming SNAP. These include moving federal funds to states as block grants and giving states more responsibility in their management and disbursement. This was key to the successful welfare reform of 1996 that created Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. But most critical is reform of the underlying welfare culture that has so destructively rooted into our country. Making government largesse more efficient is critical. But we must rebuild a culture in which individuals, in all income classes, feel personally responsible for their lives. Some 16 years ago, Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill at the Brookings Institution published their research pointing to the "success sequence." Per Haskins, for those who followed these rules--finish high school, get a full-time job, get married before having children--about 2 percent wound up in poverty and 75 percent wound up in the middle class. We launched a program at CURE, the institute I founded in Washington, D.C., to publicize the "success sequence" in targeted low-income neighborhoods around the country. We bought billboard space that advertised the "success sequence" for getting out of poverty. In two major cities where we posted the billboards, Minneapolis and Philadelphia, Black Lives Matter went to the billboard company and insisted they take it down--which they did. Know that the country's left, today represented by the Democratic Party, hate the idea of personal responsibility, which is the cornerstone of personal freedom. Democrats are taking us to cultural and fiscal bankruptcy. This is what Republicans want to change. Star Parker is founder of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education.
