If the United States government would focus on its core missions, as defined in the Constitution, and junk all the socialist instigated distractions, it would be very, very good at meeting its obligations to taxpaying voters;
The United States Constitution very clearly defines the duties and responsibilities of the United States government. No where in that document does it suggest that the United States government should, in any way, be involved in foreign or domestic charity. Since January 20, 2025, American taxpayers have learned just how badly the United States government manages charity; that is to say how badly screwed the U.S. taxpayers have been so far.
"Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government." ~ James Madison
"The more things a government undertakes to do, the fewer things it can do completely. When the government tries to do everything, it must do everything badly." ~ Henry Hazlitt
So far, the USAID fraud has uncovered nearly one billion dollars of fraud, waste, and abuse. And so far, it appears that the Minnesota Somali fraud has cost American taxpayers something over nine billion dollars. Most observers suggest this is only the tip of the iceberg. What will be found in California in addition to the 16 billion dollars already spent on a high-speed rail system where not one single yard of track has been laid? What will be found in Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Wisconsin, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts? Yes, so far, we have seen only the tip of the iceberg. Sadly, there is no doubt fraud will also be found in states not run by Democrats.
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” ~ 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution
In modern terms, the United States government was directed by the 10th Amendment to stay in its own lane. Charity is not the function of government at any level. Charity is a responsibility of the people, as it was for the first 175 years of America’s history.
The revelations concerning fraud and misappropriation of funds clearly demonstrates that the government has exceeded its skill set, a skill set it had no business getting involved in. The reality is that the career professional politicians of both political parties found a mechanism in charity to use taxpayer money to buy votes. Worse yet, in the last 50 years, that mechanism has morphed into a cash cow to make these politicians rich at taxpayer’s expense. Many in Congress have become millionaires and multi-millionaires and it wasn’t on their meager congressional salary.
If the federal government got out of the charity business, probably 50% of the civil service employees would no longer be required. This would be the half that has been unable (or unwilling) to prevent the raging waste, fraud, and abuse that is taking place.
"To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." ~ Thomas Jefferson
Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society (aka war on poverty) failed miserably. More important, it has created a listless class of people willing to live life off of the hard-working American taxpayers. The federal government doesn’t have the skill set to fix this problem.
The Department of Education’s dump of more and more money into American education has taken the United States education system from number one in the industrialized world to number 28, a miserable failure. This system is now producing the most uneducated, brainwashed people in American history.
These domestic government charity programs have never been social programs; they have always only been a political tool to buy votes. Foreign aid charities serve too as a political tool, except rather than buying votes, it is an attempt to buy friends and that hasn’t worked out very well. For example, the United States is the biggest funder of the United Nations. How well is that going? Friendship can’t be bought; it must be earned.
"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else." ~ Winston Churchill
America has tried the socialistic/communistic government-controlled welfare system which has only made more unethical people rich than truly helped people. Before all is said and done, the damage to the taxpayers will likely exceed 100 billion dollars not counting the annual cost of the people administering (he said jokingly) these programs. It is time for the federal government to get out of the charity business. It is glowingly obvious that the right thing to do is for the federal government to get out of the charity business.
"One great error is that we suppose mankind more honest than they are." ~ Alexander Hamilton
These idealistic socialist type programs, like all socialist type programs, have failed because of the flaws human beings have had since the beginning of time. Most people are willingly hard workers, some people are lazy and would rather be bloodsuckers off the hard workers, and some people choose to work hard as criminals and be bloodsuckers off of society as a whole. That is why any government-controlled welfare system is destined to fail. Welfare must be on a small scale at the local level to be adequately controlled.
“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.” ~ Thomas Jefferson
If the United States government would focus on its core missions, as defined in the Constitution, and junk all the socialist instigated distractions, it would be very, very good at meeting its obligations to taxpaying voters. In 2025, it has been graphically demonstrated that the federal government is very, very bad at administering non-governmental functions created by career professional politicians to line their own pockets in the name of doing good for some special group of people who never receive what was promised them.
Read next: We Have the Government We Deserve
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After a 55 year career as a professional pilot in the military, in law enforcement, in the private sector, and in federal civil service, I am now retired.
In many of these positions I repeatedly took an oath to defend the United States Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.
