Build Ladders Before Cutting and Gutting Programs

Just cutting government programs from the top down doesn't do anything but hurt people. Reforming these government institutions requires leadership from the top, installing sensible leadership at the top, someone that understands how to alter the dynamics within these government entities and the delivery of the services to the American people. That is a monumental effort.

If you've ever required a government program to survive, it can be a total bitch. Anyone who thinks it's easy, is completely ignorant of the true nature of the beast. They make it as impossible as they can to get the service, maintain the service and then sensibly transition off the service without torturous retribution for even considering it.

What's necessary is a revamp of the entire system . . . to think about this from the idea of a consumer of these programs . . . you don't cut the service and think that all of a sudden a consumer will just magically create what has just been taken from them all on their own.

You create ladders out of these programs that don't punish hard work, that rewards work. That creates incentives for working toward independence. That is what's missing in the current system. I do think that liberals do stand in the way of this, but so do conservatives.

Paul Ryan talks about Ladders of Opportunity, and so do Progressives. We need these in order to stop the welfare state. Demonizing those in the welfare condition isn't helpful. It doesn't help a person telling them they are worthless and without value, or that they have it easy when their lives are anything but . . . just try and be completely dependent on something that is completely broken.