Ross: How much is it going to cost us to save all this money?

We all know when looking for corruption, you follow the money. I would like to propose that when you’re looking for consequences in this current debt drama, we follow the removal of the money. We follow the cuts.

I listened carefully to Kevin McCarthy’s argument for demanding spending cuts before raising the debt ceiling. Some of his ideas will poll pretty well; ending student loan forgiveness, clawing back the unused COVID-19 money from local governments, and requiring more able-bodied welfare recipients to work.

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He mentioned President Clinton’s Welfare to Work Act in 1996 – which Joe Biden supported, which also imposed work requirements.

“When we talk about work requirements, Senator Biden voted for that. President Clinton signed it into law,” McCarthy’s said. “We watched every study after the fact take people from poverty and provide a job for them. We saw Americans lifted up.”

And yes – after that 1996 crackdown on welfare, the rolls did shrink dramatically. For a while, we wondered where all those people went! I’m sure a lot of them prospered. But now, a generation later, we know that a lot of them don’t.

We drive by them every day.

But when the work requirements are raised even further– do you think there will be fewer of them?

Basically, McCarthy’s ideas cut money that was going to people who don’t have much as it is.

Many of these people are lazy, addicted, and undeserving.

But whatever their situation, when you stop giving money to people who don’t have that much to begin with, what happens next?

Do these people suddenly get a job? Do they just disappear? Sure! Probably into a wooded area.

So follow the cuts. The federal government will spend less – but what about the state? The city? The highway department? The parks department? It all comes from the same taxpayers.

The only question is – how much is it going to cost us to save all this money?

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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