Who is the Government?

Editor,

Ronald Reagan did not have the sentence correct. He said that the most frightening words in the US were “I’m from the government and here to help.”August 12, 1986 in a press conference. He actually continued in his press conference to show that the government was the place to get help.

President Ronald Reagan at the press conference- “I think you all know that I’ve always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help. A great many of the current problems on the farm were caused by government-imposed embargoes and inflation, not to mention government’s long history of conflicting and haphazard policies. Our ultimate goal, of course, is economic independence for agriculture, and through steps like the tax reform bill, we seek to return farming to real farmers. But until we make that transition, the Government must act compassionately and responsibly. In order to see farmers through these tough times, our administration has committed record amounts of assistance, spending more in this year alone than any previous administration spent during its entire tenure. No area of the budget, including defense, has grown as fast as our support for agriculture.” from-reaganlibrary.gov

Unlike the duo of Trump and Musk, Ronald Reagan did not sacrifice the country or its farmers for a smaller government. President Reagan knew that the government in the USA was to serve and stabilize the lives of the people. He talked of grain support loans, drought assistance and more. This administration of Trump Musk has broken many a promise. A major one for farmers was the grant they were promised in a bill passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 provided $3.1 billion for this assistance.

Because it was not in his own interest and not during his administration, Trumelon, feels it is his right to over ride Congress and deny the assistance that was signed for and pledged to individual farmers. Cue the farmer who has already paid $80,000 of his money, with the assurance of the government that made a promise to do their part. Trumelon says no and so the farmer will lose his farm The voters’ Senators and Representatives passed this legislation. Trumelon has broken the promise. It is not their right to do so.

“USDA Announces Final $300 Million in Automatic Assistance for Distressed Farm Loan Borrowers” published December 20, 2024 from www.USDA.gov. “Thanks to President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, more than 47,800 distressed borrowers have received $2.5 billion in assistance to help keep them farming.” One president kept the promise and one broke it. The promises are reverberating as broken across many agencies that our Congress voted to fund. There has been no vote to defund by the legislative branch. There is only autocratic and Gestapo like movement to shut down the government by the executive branch. This breaking comes from the head of the executive branch that has co-opted the powers of the legislative branch of our government.

We will not have a smaller government. We will have a crippled government because Trumelon mistakenly thinks a government should be run like a business. What is known and repeated by a man, who is a federal employee, an engineer and an ex-miner and who has saved thousands of coal miner lives is, “The government does the necessary things that business is not willing to do because they do not make enough money from it.” Christopher Mark. Michael Lewis, author of “Who Is Government” says the same thing. Government does what we want but will not be done by private business because there is no profit for business. There is much more to say about this but it will need to wait to another time.

Linda Guffin

Downieville