Having spent my entire career working in human services and mental health, I genuinely believe that if everyday Americans saw what actually goes on inside our entitlement system, they’d be furious.
Every time someone questions these programs, we’re immediately shown the saddest child or most desperate single mother they can find. We hear their heartbreaking stories, how difficult their lives are, and how desperately they need help.
And those people absolutely exist. They deserve help.
But have you ever noticed what we DON’T see?
The outcome.
We never seem to get the follow-up showing how our tax dollars actually helped these people become financially independent. How many got off assistance? How many are doing better five years later? Where are those stories?
Instead, we’ve built a system that can actually discourage people from improving their circumstances.
Think about a single mother receiving food stamps and subsidized daycare. She gets a raise, takes on more hours, or finds a better-paying job. Sounds great, right?
Except now she risks losing benefits that are worth more than her increase in pay.
So she’s working harder and potentially ending up worse off financially.
What exactly is her incentive to get ahead?
And that’s just one part of the problem nobody wants to discuss.
There are people who’ve practically turned gaming government benefits into a career. They know the rules, the loopholes, and exactly how to maximize what they can collect. And they’re perfectly content to keep doing it.
The Somali fraud allegations exposed by Nick Shirley shocked people. But I don’t think most Americans realize how much abuse and dysfunction exists in these programs right here among American citizens.
Then there’s the bureaucracy itself.
I’ve encountered government employees who’ve held their positions for 15 or 20 years, who are apathetic on their best days and downright rude and incompetent on their worst. People who seem to face no accountability and somehow manage to fail upward.
And what is government’s answer to all of this?
More money. Always more money.
More programs. More employees. Bigger budgets.
Meanwhile, we’re still being shown the same heartbreaking stories, year after year, without anyone bothering to explain why all the money we’ve already spent hasn’t solved the problems.
I’ve spent my career working with people who need help. I absolutely believe in a safety net.
But I also believe the goal should be to help people reach a point where they no longer need it.
We should be measuring success by how many people become self-sufficient, not how many people remain enrolled in government programs.
And I think taxpayers have every right to ask why we aren’t.
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