If there is one thing we have learned from the government shutdown, it is that the government is way too involved in far too many areas of our society, including buying tens of millions of people’s food with taxpayer cash, making the effect of the shutdown much more far-reaching than it ought to be.
The Founders were strongly opposed to government welfare on our current model, which, in fact, only perpetuates poverty and creates large numbers of dependent leeches on the system, rather than actually solving any problems. Government-mandated charity, a socialist idea, always has and always will cause more problems than it solves. As Salem Media news show host Larry Elder put it, “People need help. But no questions asked government provided welfare induces government incentivized sloth.”
Elder got into an argument over the weekend with a deranged leftist who seemed to be under multiple delusions, including the theory that Donald Trump is the reason for the shutdown and temporary end of food stamp benefits, the claim that hordes of Americans will starve without welfare, and to top it off the most misquoted line in history, “let them eat cake” (Marie Antoinette never said it, nor would have). Elder subsequently consolidated their conversation into one X post, which provides an interesting analysis of just what is wrong with our welfare system — and some Americans’ entitlement mentality.
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Elder was right to call the Democrat-induced shutdown a “teachable moment” about welfare. “Has it occurred to the Trump-hating left that a country where ‘42 million Americans will starve without their SNAP benefits’ says something unhealthy about our culture, our government subsidized and incentivized dependency and our reliance on an inherently inefficient government to address the needs of the truly needy?” Elder asked.
He continued, “The greater the reliance on government the greater the impact of politics. If government butt out of the business of welfare whether a republican or Democrat is president and whether Democrats or Republicans control Congress would make no difference as to helping the poor.” As interesting background information, the number one purchase using food stamps is soft drinks, while bag snacks are number four. Many of the more than 40 million SNAP recipients are just buying junk food with our money. You can watch videos below of obese food stamp recipients who said if they didn’t get their taxpayer-funded benefits, they would simply shoplift whatever they wanted.
Keep the government shut down. pic.twitter.com/wrN06zaFko
— 9mmSMG (@9mm_smg) October 21, 2025
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This calorically wealthy woman insists that her and her boyfriend will resort to violence if her food stamps don’t come. pic.twitter.com/uOPxQ7fl2R
— 9mmSMG (@9mm_smg) October 21, 2025
Elder had some back-and-forth with the deranged lefty about “no kings” jargon, and Elder pointed out that even Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, who basically founded the modern welfare state, admitted that long-term welfare is highly problematic.
“My point is simple,” Elder added, “government should not be in the business of welfare, whether to benefit Republicans or Democrats or both. Assistance to the needy should be addressed by people, houses of worship, non-profits, etc. When people depend on government welfare politics inevitably play a role. The bigger the government the greater the opportunity for ‘the other party’ to affect people’s lives. That’s what I’m saying, no more, no less. You should be on my side. You don’t like Trump. I don’t like Obama and Biden. Why don’t we take away their sandbox?”
This is why the work of DOGE under the Trump administration to identify and eliminate fraud in the federal government is so vitally important. But if we were truly and fundamentally serious about eliminating fraud, we would scrap our entire welfare system, which drives up our astronomical federal debt, and which has created an entire class of entitled and lazy dependents.
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