For years Americans have been fed a line by politicians in Washington that if you work hard and pay your dues to Uncle Sam, the government will provide a network of health care and retirement programs that will take care of you for life.
This seemingly innocuous idea, that the federal government is best suited to meet certain needs, has been stretched and contorted by policymakers on the left (and, sadly, some on the right) to blanket nearly every aspect of daily life. It's pervaded popular opinion. More than three-quarters of Democrats think the government should "do more to solve problems."
Americans should be wary of Washington's munificence, not pleading for it. The well-spun gimmick that big government ought to be the purveyor of Americans' every want and need has pushed our country down a gradual, slippery slope toward socialism. It's bankrupting our coffers, impeding small businesses, and exacerbating the national affordability crisis.
And now, it's nearing an implosion point. The paint on generations of liberal big government promises is peeling.
Social Security -- the federal program meant to protect Americans' retirement -- is on the brink of insolvency. Estimates project that the program's trust fund will be depleted by 2032, at which time benefits will be cut by about a quarter. More cuts will invariably follow, as the program continues to lose money.
That's a hard pill to swallow. Most individuals spend their entire careers paying in with the understanding that they will reap the rewards when they retire. To find out their benefits are not what was promised is analogous to the rug being pulled out from under them. And it's having real consequences.
About a quarter of Americans over the age of 50 have already decided to delay retirement, up from 14% in 2024. A study last year found the median savings of 55-year-olds was just $50,000 -- hardly enough to comfortably retire. If a person invested their hard-earned money in the market instead of paying Social Security, they could expect to earn twice as much or more than by entrusting it to the government.
And that's to say nothing of fraud and abuse. In 2024, the Social Security Administration's own inspector general reported $72 billion of improper payments between 2015 and 2022.
Medicaid -- which accounts for about 10% of the federal budget -- is another example of a well-intentioned program rife with abuse. In 2024, it doled out more than $31 billion in improper payments, including over $200 million made to health care providers for patients who had already died.
Compassion requires sustainability. Unfortunately, Uncle Sam is a bad asset manager and a bad doctor -- truly, a bad provider of most services. However, Democrats continue to throw taxpayers' money at programs while adding even more to the docket, with no plan of how to pay for them.
For generations, churches, nonprofits and grassroots organizations filled needs within our communities -- efficiently and with greater accountability. They have been edged out by the federal welfare state, fostered by the left's insistence that bigger government is the answer to every social woe.
Rather than growing the federal government, policymakers should be focused on growing our economy. Free enterprise is the ultimate mechanism for lifting people up and providing them with the resources to build better lives for themselves. Not to mention, when our economy is thriving, it creates more public revenue to fund programs that our country truly needs.
Our government was never intended to be the default supplier for every personal need. In fact, the Founders envisioned a limited federal government -- powers "few and defined" -- and cautioned that unbridled growth would produce "elective despotism."
Sadly, that's what the left wants. It heralds programs that nurture reliance on a centralized government, because it gives them more power. When distant bureaucrats call the shots, ordinary families have less control over their own decision making. It's a steady erosion of personal freedom, which is part of the left's march toward socialism.
Thomas Jefferson famously wrote: "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
His words are more salient today than ever before. For years lawmakers' insatiable appetite for more government spending has led our country down path of economic ruin and social dependance. It's not too late to correct course, but it will take a much-needed wake-up call that Washington isn't the driver of economic growth -- people are.
Ken Buck received his law degree from the University of Wyoming and served in the United States House of Representatives from 2015-2024 representing Colorado's 4th congressional district.
