OPINION:
President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” includes provisions to boot illegals off Medicaid and make those between the ages of 19 and 64 years old work at least 20 hours per week as a condition of receiving the benefit.
These are common-sense reforms.
Democrats and their friends in the media, predictably enough, don’t like them, though. Let the scaremongering begin.
“The bill includes major reforms to Medicaid estimated to lead to millions of people losing coverage by 2034,” The Hill wrote.
“New studies show what’s at stake if Medicaid is scaled back,” NPR wrote.
People will die, people will die, people will die.
“Two research studies published this month … offer evidence that Medicaid, the public insurance program that covers more than 70 million low-income and disabled Americans, is saving people’s lives,” NPR reported, citing the New England Journal of Medicine and a working paper from the National Bureau of of Economic Research.
And weighing in was a Harvard University economist named Amitabh Chandra, who told NPR: “What we’re learning is that restricting access to Medicaid might save us money, but that comes at a tremendous cost. And that cost is human lives.”
People will die, people will die, people will die.
If Democrats had their way, taxpayers would be on the hook to provide funds for every man and woman and child of their chosen demographic — including illegals — to live, eat, travel and receive health care and college education for “free,” all the while never working. This is not economically sustainable because there comes a tipping point where the working class cannot possibly provide enough funds, mathematically speaking, to pay for the nonworking class. Democrats generally don’t care about that reality, though, because their party has been infiltrated and corrupted by Marxists and socialists whose main concerns are redistributing wealth to their ignorant voting masses, so their ignorant voting masses in turn keep voting them into office.
Republicans need to stand firm on this point, as well as on the work requirement.
As Sen. Jon Husted, Ohio Republican, said on a recent Newsmax episode — more is at stake than simply money.
“When you have the work requirement,” he said, “we’re getting something in return. We’re getting effort, we’re getting productivity, we’re getting a taxpayer. They’ll be able to maintain their Medicaid benefits, but they’re just going to have to work 20 hours a week.”
Once upon a time, government assistance of any kind used to be regarded by Americans with a level of shame — even by those who certainly needed it; even by those who only tapped into it for the short-term.
That shame has been removed.
America’s become a nation of entitlement-minded.
Work to many has become something distasteful, and to be avoided at all costs.
And that doesn’t just lead to higher tax requirements on those who do work. It also leads to a dampened national entrepreneurial spirit where creative ingenuity and drive and ambition are suppressed and ultimately killed.
“You’ll find a lot of times that once somebody goes to work, and you force them to go to work, they might then get a full-time job,” Husted said. “They then get health insurance with their employer. And then you start to gradually reduce the number of people who are on the Medicaid program. You start to gain productivity for the American economy. You start to create more taxpayers.”
Yes. And those who find meaningful work also find their self-esteem, their inner power, their quest for independence — their God-given purpose, perhaps; their soul.
A work ethic isn’t just a responsibility. It’s also an opportunity. It’s a chance to live out the purpose God gave each and every of His individual creations. Only communists and Marxists and socialists detest the value of hard work, and seek to divide society by a class of Haves versus Have Nots, so they can stoke jealousies and spark revolutions that ultimately put government at the center of production and distribution.
Capitalists, patriots, those of the faith and those who dare to dream the American dream all understand that work isn’t just drudgery, but the stepping stone to purpose and meaning and independence and charity and self-esteem.
Working for what one gets in life: It’s common sense. It’s character-building. And it’s inextricably woven into the fabric of American exceptionalism.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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