Neighborhood Ministries

Many of our major cities have been controlled by those who push welfare as a way of controlling the people. While they claim to be helping people, they create serious problems that create frustration and anger. Until recent welfare reform, welfare made people dependent and discouraged recipients from developing their abilities to help themselves. In addition, welfare required that the husband leave the family before they could get welfare unless he was disabled, which tore families apart. While welfare reform now puts limits on how long people can be on welfare and tries to encourage self-support, it has had to overcome three generations of families dependent on welfare. Many welfare recipients have never known anyone in their family who supported themselves and wasn’t on welfare. It is hard to overcome that.

Democrats have shown a continuing trend to push socialist control through welfare programs. They started during the depression and have continually worked to expand the number of people dependent on the government for support by expanding the number of government workers and benefit recipients dependent on the programs. They tell them to vote Democrat or the Republicans will cut the programs. The initial programs created jobs and did a lot of good by paying people to work so they had money to buy goods and services which also helped the businesses. However Democrats quickly expanded them and began paying the people directly rather than providing jobs. While they required the person to look for work, they discouraged them from working because they could make more on welfare. The housing crisis of 2008 was created by President Clinton when he forced banks and loan companies to take on loans to people without clear ability to repay them. It led to mass defaults in repaying loans which led to bank failures. During the housing crisis, President Obama loaned money to banks and companies  and placed them under government control until the loans were repaid so they had control of the companies as well as having control over those on welfare. They did the same with the auto makers. By giving the money to the companies, the workers were paid but didn’t have any work because the people weren’t able to buy cars. If they had given vouchers to the people to buy cars the workers would have had work and still get paid, without government takeover of the car companies. President Trump worked to get people back to work and saw record low unemployment right up to the outbreak of the epidemic.

President Trump issued a lockdown to control the spread of Covid until they could find a way to curb it at the advice of his advisors who we now know had a hidden agenda. They gave him bad advice to foster dependency. He then issued a stimulus check to help those laid off by the Covid epidemic. It was ill-conceived because it went to everyone under a certain income. Many people in essential services like health care were still working and didn’t need extra help. However something had to be done quickly with no time to work out details so it was probably the only way to do it at the time. However, President Biden continued the lockdown after it was no longer necessary and continued the stimulus checks.  It would only serve to buy votes, bankrupt the economy, discourage people from working, and train people to be dependent on the government. There was plenty of time to work out the details and checks should have been tailored to need. Many people were still working and didn’t need extra help. Many couples whose spouse had died during the year still got a check for each. He then continued stimulus checks after the lockdown was lifted and many had the opportunity to go back to work. President Biden also increased unemployment benefits, so many people went on unemployment because they could make more on unemployment than they were working. They actually were better off and didn’t need extra help. Many of those getting unemployment were making two to three times what they would make if they were working so they didn’t want to go back to work. Due to the bonus for those on unemployment during Covid, a lot of the money for small business loans went unused because the employees didn’t want to work because they made more on unemployment benefits. The ones needing help were the ones who were still fighting to get unemployment. Some had been fighting for over a month to get unemployment and the system was so tied up they couldn’t get help yet. Since unemployment, once received, is backdated to the time of eligibility, there is no reason that any help given couldn’t be deducted from their unemployment back-payment, once they receive it. Covid is now history but the Democrats tried to hold up renewing the budget because they wanted to continue the subsidies to insurance companies started to help them during Covid. In addition, the subsidies went to the companies to keep them afloat nut instead of going to the people. If they would have gone to the people, the people could have paid their insurance premiums and it would help the companies as well. Since it went to the companies, it left the people still dependent on government help. President Biden and other Democrats have shown strong support for  creating socialist dependency on government. America became strong as it fed on people’s desire to better themselves, while socialism is self-destructive because it destroys people’s desire to work. The economy can not get back on its feet if people don’t want to work because they can make more money on welfare. Extending the bonus and giving out more stimulus checks only prolonged the economic crisis.

Democrats continue to try to blackmail Republicans to give in to Obamacare subsidies. It is a tactic they have used in just about every budget since Obama took office. They demand massive new expenditures for worthless programs to benefit their supporters and then force a government shutdown and hold the American people for ransom until the Republicans give in. They don’t care how many they hurt as long as they get what they want.  Republicans have tried to hold out to maintain a balanced budget but eventually give in to save the people hurt by the shutdown. This time the Republicans have refused to give in to blackmail and are refusing to budge. They care about the people who are hurt but know we can’t go on giving in to blackmail because every time we allow massive new spending it pushes the country that much closer to bankruptcy. The issue is the same old one Democrats have been pushing since the housing crisis. Then the banks and automakers were faced with closing. Now it is the people without health insurance. The Democrats put the money into the banks to keep them afloat and they paid big dividends to their stockholders. That does not help because the people still owed the money to the banks so the businesses stay open but have to be continually subsidized until the people are able to pay back what they owe. If the money went to the people in the form of vouchers, they could pay off the banks so the banks could stay open and the people could still support the banks. The money went to the car manufacturers so they could still pay the workers but there is no work because the people couldn’t afford to buy cars. If the money went to the people in a voucher, they could buy cars and the workers would have work and get paid. In the first instance only the companies benefit but in the second, everyone benefits. It is the same way this time. The subsidies were to help the insurance companies through Covid. The Covid shutdown is over but they still want to continue the subsidies draining billions of dollars from the treasury to help the insurance companies. The subsidies have no guarantee that the companies will lower insurance rates and they have not lowered the rates. Obamacare was supposed to help people that could not afford insurance but it only made things worse. For instance, if a family paid $200 a month for insurance, the government offered a $200 subsidy so the insurance companies jacked the price up to $400 a month and the government paid $200 to the insurance company and the people still paid $200. The insurance companies have been raking in massive profits while the people still suffer. The only difference is that everyone’s taxes went up to cover the subsidy  so they are worse off then before. If the money went to the people, they could bid among the insurance companies who would have to keep their prices low or lose customers. It is all about power. The rate hikes drove those people who could not afford to get insurance to apply for subsidies making them dependent on the Democrats to keep the money flowing. The more people dependent on the Democrats, the more votes they can count on in upcoming elections.

We saw the same thing with welfare. When I worked for the welfare department back in the 1970’s, many of those on welfare did not want to go to work because most jobs available to them paid less than they got on welfare. I encouraged them to get starter jobs which would reduce their welfare check but their pay plus the remaining welfare assistance would be more than the welfare alone. However, the other welfare workers discouraged them from getting low pay starter jobs because the workers had to refigure the client’s checks every month which was a lot of extra work. When politicians realized that people were making no effort to get off welfare, they realized they had to limit the time that clients could get assistance, or the clients would never make any effort to get off welfare. Now Democrats are pushing for a guaranteed minimum income. It would encourage those earning under the minimum amount to quit work since they would still receive the income which would be more than if they worked. It would also  increase the control of Democrats who continually tell those receiving government subsidies that if Republicans get in power, they will abolish the program so the people receiving subsidies will continue to vote for Democrats.

During covid, we saw in a small way why socialism is attractive and why it is destructive. The government expanded unemployment to help those out of work. That is a noble gesture designed to help people. The government also extended small business loans to help businesses continue paying the salaries of their workers while laid off, however there was a very angry reaction of workers against those businesses that got the small business loans because the workers could receive more from unemployment than they were making while working and they didn’t have to work for the unemployment. Socialism creates the same problem. Why work if you get paid anyway and if you have to work, there is no incentive to work longer hours because you do not receive anything extra. Therefore, the first do not work at all and the second work only as much as they are required. That is why socialism always fails and results in poverty for everyone. Everyone wants to take but very few want to give and those willing to give don’t give anymore than the minimum required.