Normally, when I tell people that I am a Republican, it is met with a strange look and often a plethora of accusatory questions. I have been asked more times than I can count, “How can you be so heartless?” or “Don’t you care about other people?” The answer is, of course I care about others. However, where I disagree with many of my more liberal friends is how to go about helping those in our country. The most common misconception about Republicans is that we don’t care, the media and those who oppose conservative policies villainize us as detached and distant from the needs of the people. As someone who is often accused, when discussing politics, of this, let me assure you this couldn’t be further from the truth.

First, I feel it is important to define what I mean when I say Conservatism. As Senator Marco Rubio said, “Conservatism is not about leaving people behind. Conservatism is about empowering people to catch up, to give them the tools at their disposal that make it possible for them to access all the hope, all the promise, all the opportunity that America offers.” The question that needs to be asked by everyone is how do we go about achieving this goal? From the left you will find numerous suggestions, almost all of which stem from one core idea that simply giving handouts in the form of welfare will solve the poverty issues in our country. Although this would seem to be the simplest approach, history has proven it seldom works when applied to the entire unemployed and out of the work force population, and even when it does produce a level of success, that success does not last.

Conservatism is built on the age-old idea that if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, if you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime. Often we forget that welfare, while it can work as a temporary bandage, doesn’t fix the issue of employment. Much like a bandage, after a while it will start to peel off and when that bandage peels off, when the programs aren’t effective, the left’s solution is to simply throw a new bandage on top of the old one to keep it from falling. The issue of this is that it doesn’t address the lack of job opportunities, the cause of the continued injury, that prevent those who want to be fully employed from achieving their goal.

Through the years we have seen over-regulation by government entities push small businesses out of the market and the liberal members of our government attempt to compensate by creating new and expanding existing social welfare services by raising money from the people through taxes. The issue becomes one of basic macroeconomics. As we take money out of the hands of the people, in the form of taxes, they do not have money to purchase goods leading to a lack of funds raised through sales available to companies to expand and create new employment opportunities.  As President Ronald Reagan put it, “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” This never-ending cycle of taxing and spending has proven itself to be ineffective. It limits the money available for investment by firms, as all taxes create deadweight loss, and it has continued to lead to an overwhelming build-up of debt in the public sector.

The traditional model of taxes and the redistribution and hope for increased economic growth and job opportunities does not address nor fix the real issue facing the American work force. Conservatives believe that welfare is a temporary solution to a permanent problem. I am not advocating that we eliminate welfare programs completely, that is another common misconception about Conservatives. I am advocating that we treat welfare like what it is, a temporary bandage, and look to create policies that lead to job creation while decreasing both unemployment and underemployment. As President Reagan said so eloquently, “I happen to think that the best social program is a job.”