BY Bill Reagan
These are uncertain days for non-profit organizations. Many nonprofits rely on government grants to carry out their mission. Many of those grants are on hold as the new administration reviews them with an eye to cutting government expenses and waste, and because of changing priorities. Advocates for small government welcome these events. Those who believe government should intervene to resolve society’s problems find cause for alarm.
It may be a good thing to step back and evaluate the effectiveness of government programs. The social safety net has grown under the past three presidents. Most people do not realize that the greatest growth in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, better known as Food Stamps, occurred in the George W. Bush administration.
Forty-seven million people, about one in seven Americans, rely on SNAP. That is not a good thing, whatever your ideology.
I am concerned about the effect of cuts in government spending on social programs for our many non-profit organizations. In the short term, at least, the need for services will not change. The burden for providing services to people in distress will shift from government to private organizations. As government support for those private organizations decreases, private support for the non-profit sector must increase.
Will it?
American society has been back and forth about who is responsible for helping the less fortunate, the government or the private sector? The real question is whether that responsibility is fulfilled through taxation or charity.
The poor are not going away.
We can hope that reduction in government spending on poverty programs will in some way decrease levels of poverty. Maybe it will, but there’s no way to ignore the fact that many jobs provide a level of income only slightly better than government assistance.
To put it simply, moving people from assistance to work is good, but it will not provide a sufficient level of prosperity to alleviate poverty.
Many Conservatives and Evangelical Christians support reduction in government spending on social programs. The question is whether they are charitable enough to assist voluntarily those whom they are now obligated to help through taxation.
Bill Reagan is executive director of Loaves & Fishes of the Rio Grande Valley.
