GOP’s Relentless Goal to Privatize America

 Let’s face it, Republicans want the least amount of government. That’s the Republican credo. They’re proud of it. They want an unregulated free enterprise economy where they can earn as much money as their hard work will produce, and keep what they earn.  That sounds like the America we all live and die for, but what if we look a little deeper? 

While these hard working people are seeking the American Dream, other people are suffering, many through no fault of their own, and through no fault of these hard working folks either, but they are suffering. I assert that we have a social contract with each other, some would also say a religious obligation, to care for these people in need. Before Social Security and Medicare (that are self funded), before Medicaid, before school lunch programs came along, sure, some people were cared for by family and friends, but many were not. And they suffered. As a nation we benignly stood by and looked the other way as they suffered. That was socially irresponsible. 

When these safety net social programs were enacted by the Democrats, people were finally able to live out their lives with a little dignity; the children were cared for; people finally received healthcare they were either too poor or too proud to seek through “handouts”, and our great country became a better place by taking the high road of accepting social responsibility. 

Republicans like to think social responsibility is an individual thing and should be dealt with totally within the private sector, or at the local level, but it clearly didn’t work before Social Security was enacted. As a country, we were morally negligent. 

When President Obama says Republicans want to end Social Security and Medicare “as a we know it”, this is what he means- the private sector had over a hundred years to make it work and they failed to do so. Going back to a dependence on the private and local sector to meet our social obligations is a giant step backwards, from the current system of “we’re all in this together”, and back to a system that never worked. That’s what ending these programs “as we know it” means. Americans should fight these relentless Republican attempts to “privatize America” and work to make these programs that have proven to be effective even better in the future.