Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has introduced a bill for the federal government to send monthly “stimulus” checks of $1,200 for adults and $600 for eligible children. The bill — called the Sending Unconditional Payments to People Overcoming Resistances to Triumph (SUPPORT) Act — would also deliberately include “undocumented immigrants.”
In the ongoing march toward outright socialism, free money from the government — in the form of so-called stimulus payments — has proven an effective hook. In the last year and a half of heavy-handed government responses to manufactured COVID hysteria, many Americans have come to accept — even expect with something approaching dependency — those large infusions of unearned cash from Uncle Sam. But as the pandemonium that has erupted with the end of the eviction moratorium shows, many of the recipients of all of that free money have not used it to pay their rent, appearing to buy deeply into the myth that the government will continue to take care of them.
As former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously said, the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.
So, the Left has a plan to keep millions of people in America from running out of other people’s money. That plan is “unconditional” ongoing, monthly payments that come close to equaling what many working Americans earn. Case in point: The average family income in the United States is just over $61,000. With the proposed SUPPORT Act, a family comprised of a mother, father, and four children would rake in nearly $58,000 without working for a penny of it.
And while the proposed legislation would certainly support those millions of Americans who can’t seem to be bothered to go back to work, it does not really address the problem of running out of other people’s money. After all, how long can the American economy handle a massive welfare program of this size and scope? Furthermore, there is the question of why anyone earning a middle-range living or below would continue to work if they can get by just as well or better without working. Those millions of Americans who can’t seem to be bothered to go back to work right now are all the evidence one needs of this principle.
A quote that has enjoyed some popularity over the years states:
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess of the public treasury.
That quote has been attributed to Lord Woodhouselee (Sir Alex Fraser Tytler), Alexis de Tocqueville, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, and many others, though it is likely apocryphal, since it cannot be found in any of their writings. But the dubious authorship of the quote does not keep it from being true. Just as there need not ever have lived a literal “boy who cried wolf” for the story that bears his name to be true, the veracity of the likely-apocryphal quote above stands on its own.
The point is that once working people begin to realize — in a deep and abiding way — that the fruits of their labor are being stolen and given to others who have not labored, they will at once realize that they are no different from slaves. Well, no different except in one regard: They can cease their labor and — by going on the dole, as well — continue to receive fruits.
Until all the money is gone.
Omar’s bill — co-sponsored by Representatives Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Dwight Evans (D-Pa.), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) — would create a $2.5 billion grant fund to run a pilot program from 2023 to 2027. The pilot program would focus on sending those monthly payments to certain “communities.” If that seems nebulous, that’s because it is. But it is a safe bet that those “communities” will be hand-picked to fit a particular political profile.
Based on the “results” of the pilot program, the SUPPORT program would open up to all qualifying Americans as well as undocumented immigrants in 2028.
There are a few things to note here. First is the fact that this is pure socialism and is not authorized by anything in the U.S. Constitution. Secondly, in a naked political maneuver, Omar and her socialist accomplices are playing heavily on the principle of a particular type of voter voting themselves largess of the public treasury. Notice that the pilot program would kick off to certain “communities” in 2023 — just in time for the 2024 election cycle. Also, the full program would come to play only after the 2028 election.
So, by using the public treasury to buy the loyalty of a certain type of voter, Democrats could create a situation where those who pay for the pilot program with the fruits of their labor are placed in a financial situation where they would need to be included in the full program just to survive. The net result could be a Democrat dynasty.
And to put in the for-what-it’s-worth column, the $2.5 billion price tag for the pilot program would be like the free crack the drug dealer gives a teen to guarantee a dedicated, repeat customer. That $2.5 billion would just be the beginning. Once this got going, there would be no stopping it — people would depend on it for their survival. If that seems doubtful, consider the last time anyone seriously proposed doing away with Social Security.
Republicans — as could be expected — oppose the SUPPORT Act. For that matter, Republicans have shown that they do not support any new rounds of stimulus checks. As far back as April, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said, “I can’t imagine the economy is going to need a fourth round [of stimulus checks].” McConnell went on to explain, “This economy is poised to boom. People have been cooped up for a year — it’s going to take off like a rocket, and it doesn’t need any assistance from borrowed money and higher taxes.”
And the White House has studiously avoided any discussion of either another round of stimulus checks or an ongoing monthly guaranteed income.
So, while this may seem like a far-flung idea right now, it is important to remember that Democrats have a way of asking for the moon and then getting it piece by piece. After all, could anyone have imagined the things Democrats have gotten away with over the past year?
