With the inauguration days away, the GOP will now be in complete control of the federal government. This will mean reduced taxes on the wealthiest Americans and reduced spending on social programs – healthcare, food benefits, welfare. Some or all of those will be cut in the coming years. Vulnerable Americans are going to be a lot more vulnerable.  And many people are asking what they can do to help.

Use Your Money

Conservatives have long argued that it isn’t the role of government to provide those benefits; it is the responsibility of private charities. Liberals argue that it’s all of us have a responsibility to care for our fellow citizens. Either way, when benefits are cut, more people are going to be in need. Now is the time for all of us to fund the organizations that will help when our tax dollars don’t.

Fund Medical Care

One of the most commonly discussed sources of free and low-cost medical care is Planned Parenthood. Whatever your thoughts on abortion, the organization provides numerous healthcare services entirely unrelated to abortion: cancer screenings, flu shots, STD testing and treatment. In short, they help people who need help.  You can help them.

Perhaps you’re not on board with that, or perhaps you want to you want to help medical care to a broader audience and not necessarily linked to awkward sexual politics.  In that case: Donate to your local free clinic. Pretty much every community has one and they provide vital life-saving primary healthcare services to people with no where else to go. After the Republicans put an end to the ACA (Obamacare), these clinics are going to be a lot busier. I can’t give you a link because I don’t know where you live. Sorry. I don’t work for the NSA. I can tell you how to find them, however:

• Google your city or county name, your state name, and “free clinic”
• Go to their website. Find the donate button. It might be on an “about us” page.
• Donate

Fund Liberty

I’m a relative moderate. I don’t always agree with what the ACLU does.  But they provide a vital counterpoint to government power, especially in a country governed by the far right.  They provide legal counsel, defending freedom of speech, privacy, due process of law, and civil rights.  As voting rights are restricted, dissent is punished, and citizens are threatened for political criticism, that will become more important than ever.

Fund Food

The right wing news sites are already asking whether the food stamp program should be ended. It’s only a matter of time before Congress takes up the call. The program provides food to families living in poverty, primarily to children. Even if food benefits are not cut, any cut in cash benefits will also necessarily affect families’ food budgets. With no other source to feed their children, food pantries are going to need a lot more help.  But, one thing you need to understand, is that your money goes a lot farther than random donations of Kraft Mac & Cheese.  Donate food rather than throwing it away, but a cash donation will help quite a lot more. Food banks can buy in bulk and can buy items that are more urgently needed than that can of creamed corn your 5 year old won’t eat.

Like with the free clinic, I can’t give you specific instructions to find your local food pantry, but once again Google can help.  Follow the same instructions as above. Search for your city or county name, your state and “food bank.”  Go to their website. Donate money.

Whatever our political party and whoever we voted for, we must realize that for a lot of people the recession never ended. Most of these people are not lazy or entitled like we might imagine. Most of them are working hard and are simply underpaid and underemployed. If the government is not going to help them, it is up to the rest of us to step forward.

Confused Hadrian

If you have been at all active in politics on social media, you have seen the cycle of blame and rumination.  How did we get here? And, whose fault is it!? I’m sure that was cathartic. But, the election is over. The votes have been counted. This is going to be our government for at least two years. Maybe more. Maybe a great deal more. Yet, the time from recrimination and blamestorming is past. No more blaming Hillary or Bernie Sanders or millennials. No, this isn’t one of those “grow up and move on” posts. This is “move forward.” We will all have work to do in the coming years to make this country better and to help each other.  But, what can I actually do?

Tell Your Story

In the United States, it is not socially acceptable to receive any kind of hand out. Collectively, we look down on beggars, panhandlers, and people who need help.  When we receive help from programs that we and our families have paid into as taxpayers – whether that is Medicaid, food stamps, welfare, disability, or Obamacare – we don’t like to talk about it and often we actively try to conceal it. The inevitable result of this silence is that the people we see using benefits are only the most brazenly socially oblivious. We’ve all seen it: the couple high on something trying to buy $19 sushi with food stamps, the ‘disabled’ uncle playing tackle football at the family reunion, the Wu-Tang Clan’s Ol’ Dirty Bastard picking up his government check in a limousine on national television.

None of these examples are typical cases, but they seem that way because we don’t see the thousands of counter examples. The fraud rate is actually very low. The working single mother hides her foodstamp card behind her debit card.  The unemployed salesman doesn’t mention how he keeps his apartment. The couple with a new baby don’t mention their search for a pediatrician who takes Medicaid on their Facebook birth announcement.  There is shame in receiving help from the government, so oftentimes the only people we see using it are the utterly shameless.

I Didn’t Get Here Alone

In my own life, I have worked very hard. I went to college and held part time jobs. I studied. I overloaded my course schedule to make sure I could graduate in four years.  As an adult, I’ve taken lousy jobs, worked overtime, and saved as much money as possible. But I didn’t get to that position without help. I have received just about every kind of government aid at one point or another:

• Medicaid
• Food stamps
• Student aid
• Unemployment

Without them, I wouldn’t have a good job with a decent salary that allows me the time to write political rants like this one on the internet. In fact, without some of that medical aid, I may not even be alive.  These programs help real people. People like me. I didn’t learn laziness and dependency. No, I was given resources that allowed me to pay my taxes and contribute to society – a society that can help other people who are in my prior position.

If you have been helped by these programs or any other, everyone who still needs the help also needs you to talk about it – to your friends, your family, your church group, your Facebook and Twitter followers, anyone who will listen. I guarantee you’re not alone.  After that, tell your representatives in Congress and encourage others to do likewise. It’s safe to discontinue programs who are used by largely imaginary undeserving frauds. It’s not as easy for elected officials to turn their backs on real Americans.  The new Congress backed off an initiative to weaken the Ethics Office because of constituent phone calls. The voice of the public can and does make a difference.