President Trump’s address to the nation was a cold-turkey, slap-in-the-face, wake-up call for America. In that one speech, Donald Trump tried to drag the United States back from being a victim-dependency country to its founding commitment to be a personal responsibility achievement culture. He truly wanted to reclaim the American Dream that inspired the founding fathers to create our Republic.
There is indeed a new sheriff in Washington. This president and his DOGE team are bringing a no-nonsense message to government leaders and its citizens—wake up and take responsibility for your and America’s future. It’s time for zero-based budgeting in Washington—justify the importance of your spending or cut it. For those trapped in government dependence, it’s time to cut the gravy train.
What did we do before the "war on poverty," big government, and the welfare state? We took care of our neighbors. We depended upon our faith communities. We were survivors, scroungers who got rid of what we didn’t need and found a way. Americans proudly became stronger and more self-reliant. In tough times, they temporarily depended on friends, churches, and local charities to help them get back on their feet. But they didn’t stay down. They wanted to achieve their dream, not settle for endless handouts.
Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, said, "The worst thing you can do for those you love is the thing they could and should do for themselves." To most Republicans self-reliance is not an outdated value. We believe it is a transforming value that has helped make America what it is.
It started long before Lincoln. Our founding fathers knew what few seem to know today. The right to pursue one’s dreams, earn one’s success, and use the fruits of one’s labor are yearnings of free men everywhere. To ensure those freedoms, they created a limited Constitutional Republic to protect individuals from the overreach of an all-powerful government.
Unfortunately, more and more Americans today are looking to government to take care of them. The proliferation of programs, assistance and entitlements allow some Americans to feel “charitable,” but they're “charitable” with other people's money. Like modern day Robin Hoods, they want politicians to take more from the rich and give to the poor and middle class.
But isn’t caring for the general welfare of citizens one of the roles of government? Commenting on the Constitution's general welfare clause, Thomas Jefferson said, "Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated." He also had a warning: “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” Sound familiar?
In 1794, James Madison, the acknowledged father of our Constitution, stood on the floor of the House to object to Congress appropriating $15,000 to assist French refugees. He asserted, "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." He added, "Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government."
Benjamin Franklin criticized King George’s high taxes to pay for the welfare entitlements of his time, “I affirm that there is no country in the world in which the poor are more idle, dissolute, drunken, and insolent. The day you passed that act (taxes for welfare), you took away from before their eyes the greatest of all inducements to industry, frugality, and sobriety, by giving them a dependence on someone else than a careful accumulation during youth and health, for support in age or sickness. In short, you offered a premium for the encouragement of idleness, and you should not now wonder that it has had its effect in the increase of poverty.”
Franklin preferred "responsible" caring, "I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it…. Repeal that law (taxes), and you will soon see a change in their manners. Labor…will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing all your estates among them."
Trump and his DOGE team are bringing back these common-sense lessons about how caring can actually hurt those you are trying to help. Today, more than half of our multi-trillion-dollar federal budget is spent on "charity" or "objects of benevolence." But how will people in poverty survive?
For over 200 years our free-enterprise economy has served as the greatest anti-poverty program in human history because it encouraged work, and discouraged idleness, more than any other. It used to be that Americans were ashamed to be dependent upon others. Today, people seem to embrace government dependency as if they were entitled to be taken care of. This belief is better described as an addiction that is destructive to both liberty and personal virtue.
As a psychologist I used to help patients deal with guilt. Now, therapists are more focused on rampant narcissism. The greed in America doesn’t come from people who have worked hard to achieve success. The greed comes from citizens fueled by envy who demand economic rewards they haven’t earned.
Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron confirms, "Private charity ... will provide support for the vast majority who would be poor in the absence of some kind of support. When government does it, it creates an air of entitlement that leads to more demand for redistribution, till everyone becomes a ward of the state."
Unfortunately, over the years, the Democrats have moved from being the party of the worker to the party of special interest groups and the non-worker. By continually expanding government entitlements, they’ve wasted far too many capable, productive citizens by enticing them to give up their dreams and settle for government dependence.
The added result is a rampant expanding national debt that must be stopped. President Trump and his team are committed to reversing our fall into dependence and decline. Parents know about the importance of tough love in training their children for life. Welcome to a president and administration that are ready to apply a healthy dose of tough love to those who have settled for dependence over their own American Dream.
Terry Paulson is PhD psychologist, professional speaker, and author of The Optimism Advantage and his new political novel, The Summit. Contact him at terry@terrypaulson.com.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member