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We all must use our talents to support ourselves, and not depend on others

I need an explanation on how our current “War on Poverty” is working. It is supposed to help people get off government (taxpayer) assistance. Yet by executive order this administration has negated the need to be actively looking for work or in training for some expertise to find work.

This shows to be false the statement in the “Be Our Guest” column in the May 22 issue that “in many cases” work is required. All you have to do is present yourself, fill out the forms, and then you can go home to your big screen TV while talking on your cell phone—which oftentimes has been given to you by the government (again the taxpayer). And a TV and cell phone are very, very prevalent today in our “poor” homes.

Americans in many cases have been stripped of the health insurance they had and liked, have lost their doctors, have had their co-pays increased, have lost their hospitals, and have had some of their medications denied payment not because of the Republican Party, but because of the implementation of what is commonly referred to as Obamacare. Whatever happened to “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” and “There will be an average of $2,500 in savings per year”?

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, mentioned in the letter, in fact participates in caucuses with the Democrats, and has just recently declared himself as a presidential candidate for the Democratic Party.

The majority of those receiving unemployment assistance receive it for 99 weeks, courtesy of this administration. And they usually have not found work at the end of that time, knowing other assistance will probably be made available to them. However, in those states cutting off aid sooner than that, the unemployed do seem to find work. It appears that if you know the money will stop, you take up the slack and start supporting yourself.

Over the last too many years, the federal government has involved itself in things constitutionally supposed to be left to the states. We have today an $18 trillion deficit, and it increases daily. This administration has put more money into that number than all previous presidents combined, and we are in worse shape today than ever before both at home and abroad.

I will help those willing and able to help themselves. I will help those unable, because of physical or mental disabilities, to help themselves. But those who refuse to do anything to better their lives, those who try to make me feel guilty because I did work and saved and budgeted and sometimes did without to have what I have today, those individuals need to be told in no uncertain terms that they, not the taxpayer, have the first responsibility to support themselves. And let me be clear, when you say “government assistance,” you are talking about us, the taxpayer.

Christ calls on all of us to do our jobs. He did not give us talents to hide under a basket, and we all have talents, we all have the obligation.

Let us do what God designed us to do. Let us not look with avarice at someone who has more, but look with thankfulness at what we have, and pray to God to let us continue to work as he intended.

- Barbara L. Maness | Vevay