The United States has found itself at a crossroads between left and right wing agendas. Amid the mist of the struggle, a radical and deranged group has emerged. This group I am speaking of  is the Tea Party movement. Their conjectures are assembled around the idea that America should halt years of economic and social progress and revert back to the days in which capitalism was freely unregulated and government was seemingly nonexistent. There is a line between the right wing and the far right wing, and then there is another line that separates them from the Tea Party. Personally, I refer to this line as the “looney line”. Those who associate themselves past this line have persistently continued to plague the right wing. Not only has the Tea party embarrassed American politics, but it has given the American people a false economic idea that has failed in the past and will only continue to fail in the future. Yet, the Tea Party has misled many Americans into following their system of consistent insufficiency.

One issue the Tea Party speaks often about, maybe more than any other issue, is the problem with social programs. According to them, anyone who uses these programs are deemed lazy and act as a contributor to every issue in the country whether it be the deficit or the failure of businesses. Look at the statistics first: there are about 4 million food stamp recipients in any given month. Given that this is a country of 320 million,, food stamp usage has not run “rampant” as many would like others to believe. The funny thing is, around 75% of those recipients are children who cannot work. The Government spends less than 5% of the national budget on food stamps, and in around 60% of families receiving benefits, with only at least one working adult. There are, of course, those who abuse the system, and those people must be found and indicted. Regardless, the truth is that welfare helps our country more than it hurts it. America loses more money from the oversized military budget, tax cuts to the wealthy, and corporate bailouts than it does on social programs that ameliorate the United States.

What is most ironic is that the most red states (Republican states) are the states that have the most welfare recipients, proving two things; the blatant display of failure in ‘far right’ economics and when these far right wing economic policies fail the citizens of the state, the “evil” federal government steps in and gives those citizens programs that the state either refuses to give or underfunds. The failure of ‘trickle down’ economics in these states has still somehow not persuaded the Tea Party that the far right economic policy is a system of failure. To further prove sight of this point, look at the states that contribute more money to the federal government than they receive. Out of the top ten highest contributors, seven of them are democratic states. Now when looking at the states that receive more money than they give, the top ten are all republican states.

Now, tax cuts for the wealthiest do work, at least in the short term. Reagan’s presidency provides a good example. Despite the growth in poverty, lowered wages, and an increase in unemployment, the economy did grow along with the income (that is, for the richest Americans only). However, the growth was pointless as not one average American household benefited specifically from this tax cut. As Reagan continued his policies, the economy eventually stopped growing and nearly crashed in 1987. The reason there was not a complete collapse was due to George Bush Sr.’s increase on taxes (despite his campaign statement “No new Taxes!”) and movement away from Reaganomics, which even he referred to as “voodoo economics”. An even more recent example, George W. Bush Jr. gave tax cuts to the wealthiest and decreased regulation. Once again, a mirror image of the 80s was the result. The economy grew and grew until 2008, as the economy once again nearly collapsed.

Now, the U.S. does need to get citizens to become employed, rather than remain on welfare. Yet cutting these benefits will hurt America more than it will help. Perhaps there should be a minimum number of employees required to be hired by businesses according to the amount of profit they make. America can drastically increase employment this way. Once such a policy is enacted, an increase on minimum wage will then raise many families out of poverty. Although ‘untraditional’, many Americans will be lifted out of poverty and a decrease in welfare spending can follow as it will be unnecessary.

Americans must realize that the world is changing. Canada now has the richest middle class in the world, recently surpassing the United States. China is predicted to take the world economy from underneath America by 2030. Germany is currently running a trade surplus while the United States presently has a large deficit. Both Canada and Germany are much more progressive economically, and it is time to realize that the system we are running cannot withstand future issues if we, the American people, do not adapt. Sadly, The Tea Party refuses to see these facts and wants to digress back to an economic system of the early 1900s.