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Trump’s Economic Era

reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
The Tenth Amendment leaves the power to create
schools and a system for education in the hands of
individual states, rather than the federal government.
Consequently, states and local school boards had to be
convinced to relinquish their independence and allow
government overreach.

GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS
Government programs such as Social Security,
Medicare, Medicaid and food stamps have contributed
to America’s rising national debt since the early 1970’s
because Congress often raises the debt ceiling to
accommodate the increase in government spending.
These programs are contributors to spending and debt
because they always start with narrow eligibility
requirements, but Congress relaxes them over time.
With each expansion, Congress uses it as the base for
the next increase.
An example of government overreach is
Medicaid, a social safety net program that is pushing
many states to financial ruin. What started as a
narrowly tailored program to cover the health care
needs of low-income people has grown into a massive
entitlement program that now includes many healthy
Americans. This increase in Medicaid spending deters
from President Trump’s economic agenda by taking an
ever-larger piece of the pie that would otherwise go to
other priorities like roads, bridges, and education. The
increase in Medicaid spending also hurts the people
most in need of assistance because as the Medicaid
population increases, there may be less money for each
person.

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