Government Has No Part In Charity

"Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government." ~ James Madison

This is a subject I have addressed in the past and Stan McHugh reminded us again in his recent AFP/CFP article. Does Government Democrat Charity Really Help Personally, I am of the James Madison school of thought about government involvement in charity. Most certainly, the federal government has no business being involved in charity. Prior to the 1930s, all charity was handled by churches and other private sector entities.

"No generation has a right to contract debts greater than can be paid off during the course of its own existence." ~ Thomas Jefferson

Most readers know that America doesn’t have a revenue problem; we have a federal government with a spending problem. In 2000, America’s national debt was 5.7 trillion dollars As I write this, America’s nation debt is 36.8 trillion dollars. I suspect that a significant portion of that debt can be attributed to federal government charity.

When the word charity comes to mind, most people think of the high-profile charities known all over America and as seen on television. Most of those receive minimal, if any, funding from the federal government. However, America’s federal government is involved in two major types of charity, foreign and domestic.

Federal foreign charity includes any money spent for any purpose outside the United States. Often this is military aid and, of course, humanitarian aid. Military aid in the form of allowing foreign governments to purchase American military technology is one thing. Giving foreign governments military equipment is charity and a form of trying to buy friends. Giving foreign humanitarian aid is also an effort to buy friends. America has been trying to buy friends for 75 years, and it hasn’t proven to be a successful effort.

Federal domestic charity has always been focused on buying votes for one political party or another. As cynical as that sounds, it is reality as I see it. I can only offer what we watched in real time during the entire four years of the Biden administration trying to import foreigners.

In any socialist Democrat controlled jurisdiction all over America, we see charity used as unfulfilled promises to garner votes. Does that make me a cynic? Maybe, but then again maybe I’m simply a realist.

"To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." ~ Thomas Jefferson

In the very first week of the Trump 47 administration, the massive bomb shell of corruption was exposed within the federal government’s premier international charity, USAID. Subsequently, domestic charities have been exposed as government-subsidized funding for the friends of the socialist Democrat party. Planned Parenthood is just one example, and their name itself is a lie, because that organization is designed to PREVENT parenthood.

America has the richest people on the planet and organizations such as NPR, PBS, and all the various organizations for the arts do not need federal taxpayer’s money. Most of the voters supporting this funding vote Democrat, buying more votes. Based on what we have learned from DOGE, as much as 50% of federal charitable giving likely ends up in pockets it was not intended for.

"Dependence leads to subservience." ~ Thomas Jefferson

On the surface, government-provided charity for the poor sounds like a wonderful use for taxpayer’s money. Of course, the devil is in the details. The federal government has a dismal history of administering these kinds of programs. Since the institution of Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” poverty has increased in America, not decreased. 

Every time more money is thrown at poverty, poverty gets worse. However, we must remember that it is the promise of improving poverty that gets votes. One would think that 60 years of unfulfilled promises would get people’s attention, but American voters apparently have bad memories.

When visiting a national park, state park, wildlife refuge, or anywhere people and wildlife might interact, signs are posted “Don’t feed the animals because they will become dependent on human food.” Sadly, the same principle applies to human beings. The American welfare system is so good that people see themselves as better off not working when they can suck off the government’s golden teat (subservience). If the welfare system is that good, it is a failed system. The federal government needs to get out of the charity business. But it does buy votes.

"Every time that we try to lift a problem from our own shoulders, and shift that problem to the hands of the government, to the same extent we are sacrificing the liberties of our people." ~ John F. Kennedy

The United States federal government is very good at one thing and one thing only, and that is squandering taxpayer’s money. The war on poverty and the Department of Educations were good ideas, in theory. However, these are failed and broken systems, and no amount of money will fix them because one size does not fit all. It is well past time to junk them at the federal level and let states and local jurisdiction handle these problems appropriately.