In singling out federal programs for the deepest cuts during the haggling over raising the debt ceiling, the GOP is tapping into the myth that those who rely on public assistance are undeserving and canât be trusted to responsibly receive government benefits.
It goes back to President Ronald Reaganâs elevating and exaggerating an anecdotal âwelfare queenâ who drew checks from multiple agencies and spent the money on luxury food and drink. Democrats recoiled from the characterization, rightly so, this was belittling lower income people, who were the Democratsâ base.
Whatâs different today is that a lot more of the people depending on government assistance vote Republican. They work low-income jobs, and theyâre the ones who will be hurt by the deal the GOP wants. âYou canât have the kind of cuts the Republicans are talking about without hurting people, and a lot of those people are going to be Republicans,â says Jack Pitney, Professor of American Politics at Claremont McKenna College.
Just as there were Reagan Democrats, voters wooed by the movie star presidentâs conservatism to the GOP, there are Trump Republicans, blue collar workers who blame Democratic elites for leaving them behind and are fiercely loyal to Donald Trump for championing their biases along with their interests.
âTheyâre (Republicans) playing to a common misconception that âwelfareâ goes mostly to people who are lazy⌠for the most part, itâs a myth,â says Pitney, citing another myth underlying the Republican position âthat you can make massive cuts in federal spending without hurting anyone because itâs all waste, fraud, and abuse,â a phrase popularized by Reagan.
âThe myth of the welfare queen is alive and well, unfortunately, and I donât think Americans understand how much welfare programs have changed over the last 30 years,â says Mariam Rashid, Associate Director of Racial Equity and Justice at the Center for American Progress. States have autonomy on how and what the money is being spent on, and stringent work requirements are already in place.
Individuals between the age of 18 and 49 who donât have children at home are barred from SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) unless they get an exemption. Republicans want to expand that policy to include people up to age 55. Proposed cuts to the Medicaid program would unfairly target people with disabilities, the elderly, and people who are already living on the precipice.
Itâs easy for politicians in Washington to say people should pick up another shift when they have no idea how complicated that is for jobs that donât pay enough to get off food stamps.
The proposed GOP cuts in social welfare programs, if enacted, would change little in the broader budget picture while having an enormous impact on the lives of the most vulnerable, who already struggle with childcare, the lack of reliable transportation, jobs with minimal pay, and uneven schedules.
âIt is the central fallacy of the Republican budget cutters that you can cut your way to balance at all without touching defense and entitlements,â says Matt Bennett, co-founder of Third Way, a centrist Democratic group. Speaker McCarthy and the House GOP would have voters believe the federal government has plenty of money, itâs just going to the wrong places. âWhen youâre the anti-government party and youâve spent half a century making the case that government is the problem, itâs an easy message,â says Bennett.
Reagan famously said, âThe nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.â He set the tone for a Republican Party to clothe a miserly attitude toward the poor and downtrodden with lofty rhetoric about personal responsibility and individuality.
At the end of his eight years as president, after failing to balance the budget as promised, Reagan happily declared, âThe deficit is big enough to take care of itself.â Vice President Dick Cheney said in 2002, âDeficits donât matter,â after President George W. Bush put tax breaks, two wars, Medicare expansion, and a Wall Street bailout on the nationâs credit card.
Turns out deficits only matter to Republicans when thereâs a Democrat in the White House. Republicans are adept at taking advantage of the publicâs lack of knowledge about government spending. âVoters think 25 percent or more of the budget goes to foreign aid, and much of the rest goes to lazy people, and itâs just not true,â says Pitney, who worked on the Republican side of politics before he became an academic.
Asked if House Republicans understand the damage they will inflict on their own voters if they stay on the path theyâre on, Pitney says, âA couple of the smarter ones understand that perfectly well, and theyâre assuming itâs not going to happen (the cuts theyâre proposing). But there are a lot of people, like Jim Jordan, who believe what theyâre peddling.â
A founder and the first chairperson of the Freedom Caucus, Jordan is among the House members pressuring Speaker McCarthy to hold the line even if it means default. In a GOP caucus divided among true believers, cynics, and performance artists all poised to oust their leader should he deviate, McCarthyâs priority is to keep his job even if it means hurting his partyâs voters, and the country.
âHeâs like a kid who just got a luxury car and doesnât know how to drive it,â says Pitney, as the government braces for a last minute swerve to save the day.
