One of the inherent temptations and dangers of government redistribution of wealth is that people are usually less responsible with others’ money than they are with their own. This is a consistent problem evident both in the irresponsibility of bureaucrats who receive or manage taxpayer money and in recipients of taxpayer money from various government programs.
The Somali daycare fraud in multiple states and the Los Angeles County hospice fraud, along with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) fraud, are still drawing criticism and controversy after weeks of investigation. President Donald Trump also just took time in an interview on Fox Business to bash Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s outrageously expensive renovation project.
While the Fed technically funds itself, it manages a considerable amount of taxpayer funds, and it has been reporting operating losses of billions of dollars. All of which is to say that both the Fed and the above-mentioned government programs are irresponsible with other people‘s money.
Trump accused Powell of turning what should’ve been a $25 million renovation project into a $4 billion renovation project on Kudlow. The president vented, “It's the most expensive construction job ever built anywhere in the world per square foot. It's crazy. They're either corrupt, which — somebody's corrupt, has to be — or grossly incompetent. Now, we know he's incompetent, but the question is, is he corrupt?”
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As I mentioned above, taxpayers are not directly funding this expensive renovation, but the mismanagement is relevant because Powell was also in charge of managing loans and bank payments using taxpayer money to the tune of billions of dollars. Our concern, therefore, is that Jerome Powell appears to be incompetent and/or corrupt. The man who repeatedly helped out the Biden administration but roadblocked the Trump administration is not trustworthy. Then again, he seems to suffer from the moral disease of not caring at the snap of his fingers how much money he wastes, because in the long run, it isn’t his.
Such carelessness and entitlement are even more obvious with programs that are directly funded by the government (i.e., the taxpayer). For SNAP alone, the Trump administration found at least 186,000 dead people and 500,000 double dippers.
During the Schumer shutdown last year and the temporary restrictions it triggered on SNAP payments, furious recipients openly bragged about their plans simply to loot grocery stores if their payouts stopped coming. Think of that: They believe they are so entitled to the money strangers earn that they feel fully justified in just stealing whatever they want when they don't get those handouts. After all, welfare is a form of theft, so perhaps it's not surprising. The SNAP recipients' rants become particularly embarrassing when you know that around 40% of SNAP recipients are obese, and top purchases include soft drinks, candy, and bag snacks, hence the Trump administration's reforms.
Those SNAP recipients weren't about to starve to death without government handouts. They have simply become so entitled and ungrateful that they believe they have a right to live off other citizens' money.
