The newly charged rapper-influencer who burned cash and mocked people with less money than himself on social media — but who apparently got rich partly off EBT fraud — seems a disturbingly accurate metaphor for our current bureaucracy and welfare system. American politicians and government employees might as well be burning money and openly mocking us, because that is exactly what their policies accomplish from our perspective.
In America, the top 1% of the nation pays 40% of taxes, the top 10% pays about 70% of taxes, and approximately half the country pays next to nothing or nothing at all in taxes. There are some people who work more than half the year just to pay their taxes because our misnamed progressive income tax system is so outrageous.
The Founders were opposed to an income tax, but most especially to a progressive income tax, for good reason, as it is totally unjust and stagnates growth. The worst part is that the government uses all that money very poorly indeed for the most part.
As someone who normally pays at least a fourth of my salary in taxes, and who has relatives who pay a great deal more than that, I find this subject very personal. No doubt the same goes for many, if not all, PJ Media readers. Fraudster Mercedes New with his mansions, luxury cars, jewelry, and over 300 fake food stamp accounts is just a symptom of a gargantuan national problem.
We have a $40.39 trillion national debt not just because of fraud but also because our entire government bureaucracy and politicians from both parties never run out of creative ideas to waste taxpayer money and launch new but completely unconstitutional initiatives.
41 million Americans receive $120 billion in food stamp (SNAP) benefits every year. 23% of it is spent on junk food and soda. Efforts to legislate the eligibility of unhealthy foods to address the obesity epidemic have always failed. Why? Coca-Cola pays the lobbying arm of the NAACP to smear proponents of food stamp restrictions as “racist.”
— John LeFevre (@JohnLeFevre) February 16, 2025
For Our VIPs: Feds Say $42 Million in SNAP Fraud Could Have Fed 220,000 Americans for a Month
SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, the FBI, the CIA, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, USAID, and the Department of Education are just a handful of examples of unconstitutional programs or agencies that have done a great deal more harm than good. The fact that current officials such as HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., HUD Secretary Scott Turner, and Education Secretary Linda McMahon are doing good does not negate my point about the overall impact of these agencies. Kennedy himself once said that once the federal government gets a certain power, it will never give it back and will always end up abusing it. He was right. Unfortunately, almost every high-profile politician from both political parties is too committed to overspending to acknowledge the spiral into national financial suicide.
U.S. healthcare and education became much more pricey even as quality plummeted thanks to endless government meddling. Tens of millions of Americans and immigrants now do no work or live way beyond their means because redistributed income through hundreds of programs allows them to be irresponsible and entitled. Taxpayers funded the genocide of multiple generations through abortion. Welfare incentivizes unwed motherhood and unemployment. There scarcely seems to be a foreign dictatorship or powerful terrorist group that hasn't received American money. The Founding Fathers would never recognize the federal government and bureaucracy we have today.
Mercedes New isn't the only man burning U.S. taxpayer cash.
