Trump's Budget Cuts Don't Go Nearly Far Enough

Everyone and his brother are up in arms over Trump's nibbling at the edges of the massive welfare state. Apparently, it is cruel for the federal government to re-distribute just a little less wealth than it typically does. There is perhaps no greater indictment of modern Americans than their shameless sense of entitlement to other people's money. Consider the following:

• The federal government has no enumerated power to spend money for the purpose of alleviating anyone's poverty, hunger, or ill health, and any power not enumerated is reserved to the states via the Tenth Amendment. As such, the entire edifice of the modern welfare state -- including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the like -- is an illicit monstrosity.

• Even the states traditionally shunned the practice of spending public money to alleviate private suffering, as this is an abuse of the awesome power of taxation, whose narrow purpose is to enforce law and order while leaving everyone otherwise free to spend money as charitably or otherwise as they wish. 

• There is nothing "charitable" about spending public money to alleviate private suffering. Charity by its very nature is voluntary; public money is obtained through force. If you mug someone and distribute his cash to those in need, you are a thief rather than a saint. You are every bit as much a thief if you demand that a blow-dried politician do the same on your behalf.

• Public welfare has destroyed society by making people more dependent on government and less dependent on one another. Ever since the rise of the welfare state, private charities have withered on the vine. Worse still, every vice that helps generate poverty -- sloth, addiction, licentiousness, bastardy, etc. -- is now subsidized and encouraged rather than shamed or remedied.

•  America is going broke and simply can't afford this any longer. Entitlement (i.e., "mandatory") spending is consuming a larger and larger share of the federal budget, squeezing out  discretionary spending and sinking us even deeper under waves of non-repayable debt.

Trump may be loathsome, but the millions of Americans who demand lawless and immoral plunder are even worse. If you want to find out what's wrong with America today, take a break from your sanctimonious posturing and look at the man in the mirror. Even if you don't, the good news is that all of this is fiscally unsustainable and will collapse. Everyone will have to go cold turkey; it won't be pretty, but it will be richly deserved.

EDIT

I should have paused to address a trite apologetic regarding Social Security, namely that you supposedly "earned" this money because you paid into the system your entire working life. You didn't pay into anything; you were taxed, and the federal government immediately spent that money to pay existing Social Security recipients and to fund many other unconstitutional programs. When you retire, you will not be receiving your own money, but rather money plundered from millions of other people. This is a Ponzi scheme that likewise will collapse under its own weight (and not a moment too soon).

It reflects poorly on you if you argue that two wrongs make a right. It reflects poorly on you also if you prefer to surrender your liberty rather than rely on yourself, your family, or your friends to prepare for retirement in a voluntary and responsible manner.