Public Money

One of the best tools to disarm political opposition is to change the frame. It is even better when the change of frame reflects the truth. Recent examples of how changing the frame by the MAGA Republicans have worked in the opposite manner. An obvious example is the word “entitlements”. Just think about it! If I buy a lottery ticket at a charity event and I win, the ticket might say I get a free pizza from Luigi’s Pizza. That means I am now entitled to a free pizza. Wow! And all I must do is go to Luigi’s Pizza and he will give me a free pie! That is a bleeping entitlement. And, when you retire, you are entitled to free money every month from Social Security–That is a good thing. And all I need to do is contact Social Security and sign up. Entitlements are good. The MAGA Republicans for years used the word “entitlement” as a free give away, when actually your years of work are your winning ticket. You retire, turn in the ticket, and get money–you just won a lottery!

Not that people who act entitled to special treatment are, in fact, entitled. Most of the time, they are jerks and are not entitled to the correct time of day.

Now, many of you are thinking, “it’s not free money, I earned it and paid taxes to fund it.” The thing is that Social Security is an insurance plan. The money is pooled and each year, what is not “paid” out is used to purchase special bonds that are never offered for sale. I am not going into the economic weeds in this article, but this is an imprecise description of how taxes function operationally. The details in the weeds do not alter the narrative of this essay.

Entitlement redirection is an example that illustrates how a word or phrase can be turned inside out, good into bad, and a vile form of propaganda. Propaganda can also achieve positive results by replacing a phrase that implies negative outcomes with one that avoids such interpretations. In our current political environment, to most ears, the Maga crowd uses the phrase “taxpayer’s money” so frequently as a justification for defunding nearly every agency in government, and along with the defunding comes drastic layoffs. They have made the term into a weapon of seduction into their vile economic vision. MAGA icon, Elon Musk, even hinted that with all the cuts in spending he and his DOGE team have started, taxpayers could get a large rebate. A bribe for support of their dismantling of the federal government to replace it all with private enterprise, a process that will create wealth transfer bankrupting millions.

There is a better description of the money spent by the Federal government. You may have heard it used from time to time; “Public Money.” It implies that the Federal government spending should be used for the benefit of all. It is DEI compliant as it does not ignore those who cannot work, cannot find a job due to their race, sexual orientation, pronoun choice, gender, faith or no faith, citizen status, or even their political orientation. When we finally get Single Payer Healthcare, it will include anyone inside US borders. Taxpayer money, especially under the Trump regime, implies only workers deserve government services. And by laying off a large slice of one of America’s largest employer, the Federal government,  will put many into a non-worker status. And that unemployment spreads like wildfire. Local shops will close. Tariffs will push up prices, homelessness will increase and People Will Die. Eliminating your own use of Taxpayer Money changes your mindset for the better. It is not about you. It is about all of us. It is trivial, but it reverses a frame being exploited to encourage selfishness, and words matter.