Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D. 

We Americans have been warned about the dangers of big central federal governments, not only by the Founding Fathers, but more recently by President Ronald Reagan among others. Apparently, the warnings have gone unheeded, especially by the Marxist Left in our country, many of whom would rather be called “progressives” even though they are following the Marxist playbook. According to Karl Marx, a strong central government is critical to his theory of getting people dependent on the government rather than on themselves. Most of these dependency programs are initially sold to the people by appealing to their willingness to assist people who are in need and cannot help themselves. The Marxists then continue to expand these programs to more and more people, most of whom are fully capable of supporting themselves.

Let’s take a look at a few examples. Medicaid was initiated by the Democrats in 1966. The program was intended to assist children without parental support, the elderly, and people with disabilities. Within a couple of years there were 2 million Americans receiving Medicaid. Flash forward to 2024, there are now 89 million recipients of Medicaid. The expansion has added adults regardless of age, raised the income level to qualify, and expanded the definition of eligibility. Since 2020, the number of recipients has grown by 47%. The annual cost of Medicaid in 1966 was $900 million. It is now over $900 billion! Food Stamps (now called SNAP) again was started by the Democrats and was supposed to help the very poor and disabled. The number of recipients of food stamps in 1967 was 2.1 million; now it is 42 million. The cost of the food stamp program in 1967 was less than $2 billion dollars; it is now it is over $100 billion. Another example is the so-called Section 8 (Housing Voucher Program) This program, originally intended for struggling poor families, now pays up to $1700 per month for recipients, many of whom have incomes above the federal poverty level. It should be noted that 61% of current recipients do not have children. Also, many illegal aliens are accessing these programs.

What we have here is the classic Marxist strategy of the transfer of wealth from hard working tax payers to those who choose not to rely on themselves, but become wards of the government. The people advocating these program expansions, such as Rep. Alexandria Cortez from New York, claim that healthcare is not a privilege but rather a right! –a right that others must pay for. Of course there is no such right mentioned in the Constitution, but that does not matter to the Marxists who use giving free stuff to their supporters to get votes. We see this dependency during this ridiculous Schumer government shutdown, where recipients of food stamps are threatening to go into food stores and take what they need without paying. So much for these programs helping make people self-sufficient.

Meanwhile, the national debt keeps growing. It has now reached $38 trillion, which amounts to $327,000 per taxpayer. The largest expenditure in the federal budget is Medicaid/Medicare at $1.7 trillion. Just the annual interest on the national debt is now almost a trillion dollars a year ($970 billion). If you have not done so, go on the website: The National Debt Clock. This will provide a clear picture of what we are facing.

The question becomes, “Is it too late to turn things around?” Our country cannot survive as we have known it, if the value of the dollar collapses. Schumer and his Marxist buddies want to undo the cuts made by the Trump administration and fellow Republicans, and add back $1.5 trillion to the budget. Also, the Marxist candidate for mayor of NY City is running on more free stuff for the voters. This is not good for our country.

It will take extreme political courage for our elected officials to turn this around.