The narrow approval by Congress of President Donald Trump’s megabill, which he dubbed the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” will transform the collective pursuit of happiness that millions of Americans aspire towards into a cold, lonely path devoid of hope.
Republicans want you to believe that some of the 71 million Americans who use Medicaid are uninspired and unwilling to get a job and be self-sufficient. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, believes that Medicaid has been taken over by 29-year-old men who play video games.
“We’re going to find those guys and we’re going to send them back to work,” Johnson said. “That’s what everybody supports, that’s what the Republicans are for.”
Johnson’s attack on a made-up group of people is nothing more than a smoke screen to hide the terrible damage this will do to the working people who qualify. But sadly, this is where Republicans are at right now: portraying the harm caused by this administration as fiction, while the harsh reality hits communities across the country.
But for this hurt to stop, Americans have to face the fact that the idea of hard work and success has been misguidedly distorted by Republican leadership.
America is out of bootstraps
To paraphrase a lyric from the poet and rap artist Drake, I have literally started from the bottom and now I’m a self-made man. When I tell the story of living in a homeless shelter at the age of 18 and then establishing a life for myself by getting an education while working two — sometimes three—jobs, I always get the same reaction: “You pulled yourself up by your bootstraps.”
I respond every time with a resounding “no, I didn’t get here by myself.” If I didn’t have people who checked on me when I was in the shelter, spotting me meals or rides to community college, I wouldn’t be here. I had no bootstraps. Instead, I had a village of people who knew that a little help would give me rise to a better situation. And it did.
Americans need to get out of the mindset that our success is just ours alone. The struggle is not meant for just me or anyone else to face quietly and without help.
The American dream isn’t possible without help from the government, and it’s not possible without people who choose to be a part of a system that acts as the backbone of our society.
So the passing of Trump’s megabill signifies the end of what we believe to be hard work and the pursuit of happiness.
Conservatives and Trumpers alike believe that the pursuit of happiness is a path you walk alone, without help or guidance from those who have come before. But people like me, who had to work hard to get where I am, know that success is made with people who reach their hand out in help and a whole lot of luck.
For millions of Americans, that help comes from the government, and Trump is now making it a shell of itself.
Moreover, the American dream was once a beacon for the world, inspiring people to come to our country and see this dream in person. Now, with the bill’s billions given to hire more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and build Trump’s wall, almost a decade in the making, the light has been dimmed.
The light will only shine again when we think from a place of openness and an understanding that we’re all in this together.
After all, it’s we, the people.
By LeBRON ANTONIO HILL/Sacramento Bee
