If you are looking for massive inefficiency, little accountability and a mountain of waste, fraud and abuse, then government is for you.
To hear some tell it, there is nothing in the federal government’s budget that can be cut. Every dime spent is absolutely critical, and if anything is cut, “people will die!”
Even National Public Radio.
NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher warned, “defunding [NPR] is a real risk to the public safety of the country.”
Maher said advocates for NPR are “devastated that the Senate voted to eliminate federal funding to the local public television stations throughout this country that provide essential lifesaving public safety services, proven educational services and community connections to their communities every day for free.”
If she really believes what she says is true, NPR will now prioritize its spending to ensure the continuation of its life-sustaining functions. Of course, that might mean it will have to eliminate other essential reporting, such as this review of a “teenager friendly” book: “What ‘Queer Ducks’ can teach teenagers about sexuality in the animal kingdom.”
Did you catch the “for free” part at the end of Maher’s statement? If NPR’s programming was really “free,” there would be no need to cut funding, would there?
The truth is, nothing is free. Just because the government is paying for it doesn’t mean it’s free. Anyone who pays taxes is paying for it.
NPR is seriously biased, but it is not free.
It’s like those “free courses” Maryland public school students are now able to take at community colleges. Students may not have to pay to attend the classes, but taxpayers certainly have to pick up the tab.
That’s a concept progressives have a real hard time wrapping their heads around.
Socialists, like New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, are all about free. “Free” public transportation. “No-cost” child care. It’s all a lie.
A wise man once said, “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”
And George Bernard Shaw once quipped, “A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.”
I don’t really blame progressives for being so deceitful. If the public is too naive to recognize what they’re up to and continues to vote progressive lawmakers into office, then the public gets what it deserves.
The good news is, all across the country, Americans appear to be waking up to the lie. Then again, we live in Maryland — one of the bluest of blue states — where robbing Peter to pay Paul is the state sport.
The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future is a great example. The Blueprint prioritizes one demographic group over another. Counties like Carroll now receive less taxpayer money so that the state will have more money to give to other counties like Prince George’s County.
Worse, Carroll County has been forced to adopt the same educational “reform” plan every other county in the state has been forced to adopt. Only a bureaucrat or politician would think the same reforms will work in two jurisdictions as different from one another as Carroll is from Prince George’s County, but that’s what we’ve got going on here in Maryland — a one-size-fits-all government-mandated initiative that treats all Maryland counties the same.
And it will only cost taxpayers $10 billion.
Worse still, state legislators have not allocated enough money to pay for their “reforms,” so they are expecting local governments to make up the difference by raising local taxes.
This is how Maryland Governor Wes Moore is able to run campaign ads in his bid to become president, in which he claims to have fixed the state’s budget woes. He didn’t. He just shifted the tax burden to local governments.
The Blueprint even goes so far as to blackmail the counties. If they refuse to rollover and raise local taxes to pay for the state’s unfunded mandates, they will lose their state education funding altogether.
I’d like to see that. I’d like to see candidate Moore explaining why he cut off education funding to students in his state.
There is very little Democrats will not do or say in pursuit of political power. They have proven this many times, especially since President Donald Trump’s first term, but America is souring on progressive policies — and tactics — and Democrats are trapped. They were perfectly happy to embrace the radical left when they saw it as being in their political self-interest to do so, but they created a monster, and that monster is now feeding on its own.
That progressive policy positions are growing increasingly unpopular with the American public is the reason Democrats are looking for a presidential candidate with “aura.”
Elijah Templeton wrote in The Herald, “Politics have long been more about the candidate presenting the policies than the actual policies themselves and this is nowhere more apparent than America in 2025. This reality has led us to a second Donald Trump term and a Democratic party in complete disarray for one reason and one reason only: the Democrats do not have a candidate with aura.”
These days, the term “aura” is used as a compliment, essentially calling someone cool or suave, so what Templeton is saying is Democrats need a candidate with charisma, not substance; a slick politician, someone people will vote for because they are good-looking and charming rather than on how they will govern.
You know, someone like Wes Moore.
Zohran Mandami and California Governor Gavin Newsom also fit the bill. Fast-talking, silver-tongued politicians who have a lot in common with the average used car salesman.
With socialism becoming a common theme among Democratic politicians these days, a candidate with “aura” is all Democrats have left if they hope to win another national election.
But if the party cannot even disavow a Marxist, antisemitic candidate running to become mayor of the financial capital of the world, it has surrendered the right to be supported by anyone.
And they know it.
Chris Roemer resides in Finksburg. He can be contacted at chrisroemer1960@gmail.com.
