Mr. President, We Want Less Government Dependency, Not More

Although President Trump has achieved some amazing wins for America in the less than 11 months into his second term, he should reconsider some programs he's been touting recently.

They sound more like a socialist's dream than something dreamed up by someone who understands capitalism and became wealthy because of it.

Last week the White House announced that "the Trump Admin is giving the next generation a real jumpstart on saving — and on the AMERICAN DREAM."

They continued, "according to the Council of Economic Advisers, a Trump Account could grow to over $300,000 in just 18 years. HUGE."

The White House went on to explain that, "An American child born after December 31, 2024 and before January 1, 2029 for whom a Trump Account is established will receive an initial $1,000 deposit from the government, with the potential for parents to contribute up to an additional $5,000 per year1 initially."

In addition, employers are encouraged to contribute up to $2,500 annually to each employee’s Trump Account without affecting his income.

This was actually written into the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBBA) and directs the U.S. Treasury to pay each newborn $1,000 to seed the account.

The CDC reported a provisional 3,622,673 births in 2024. That would equate to more than $3.6 billion annually.

But that's not all.

Trump has repeatedly called for sending $2,000 "tariff dividends" to low and middle-income Americans, claiming revenues from his increased import taxes would cover the cost and still pay down the debt.

However, the Tax Foundation estimated that those "tariff dividends" would amount to more than the tariff revenue, placing the United States further in the hole.

But even if it didn’t, the revenue would be better spent paying off debt.

In 2022, the IRS processed roughly 165 million individual tax returns.

Assuming two-thirds were low-to-middle income wage earners who would receive the $2,000 "tariff dividend," that would amount to approximately $220 billion.

Both of these programs invite fraud, waste and abuse on a grand scale.

In recent months more than $1 billion in welfare fraud was uncovered in Minnesota, much of it committed by the Somali community. Some of it funded lavish lifestyles, and much of it funded Al-Shabaab terrorist activities in Somalia.

At the federal level, early in this administration the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) discovered hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars that disappeared due to fraud, waste and abuse.

And this is coming at a time when our American identity is already in peril.

The three Founding principles that contribute to American exceptionalism are individual liberty, a free market economy, and personal responsibility.

Think of them as three legs on a stool: Remove one and the stool collapses.

The previous administration tried hard to remove the first leg — to strip us of our basic liberties of free speech, free press, and freedom of religion, guaranteed under the First Amendment, as well as our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

As for the second leg, forces have worked for decades to replace our free market economy with socialism. Lawmakers like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., preach socialism like they’re in Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show.

Also, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani aims to turn the Big Apple into a "socialist paradise," and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., suggested Friday that Congress should just take care of everyone.

"Congress has the money and the power to feed every family, house every neighbor, and guarantee healthcare for every single person but instead, my colleagues choose to line their own pockets by supporting endless war," she said.

"Our communities deserve better."

Well, no, Congress doesn't have a dime.

The only money they get is what they strong-arm out of the people, and they don't manage that very well — they’ve put us more than $38 trillion in debt.

And now, these new White House programs would, without realizing it, chip away at the third leg — personal responsibility. In the words of the rock group Dire Straits, it would amount to "Money For Nothing."

Although there’s something alluring about receiving "Money For Nothing," it tends to rob us of our sense of self-worth. At its worst, we may come to feel entitled to continue receiving "Money For Nothing."

We should tell the president and Congress, "Thanks, but no thanks, we can do it ourselves."

Famed American economist Thomas Sowell observed that, "One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain."

We need to become productive again and honor the producers.

Then we can honor ourselves.

Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and is a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He's also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and a Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.