The Theft of a Nation – And How We Get It Back

"It's not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can't do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country."

That's what the President now says. He wants the federal government to stop helping with social programs. He says states should handle it alone while Washington does nothing but wage war – seemingly on us and the rest of the world. His decision-making feels like a blind man throwing darts at a map.

But we already pay federal taxes for those programs. Social programs are 60-70% of the budget. Now he's going to take that money and spend it on wars we didn't ask for? That's not leadership. That's theft. He's bypassing Congress to spend our tax dollars however he wants. If your client paid you for one thing and you used the money for something else, you'd go to jail for fraud.

A private equity coup, not an administration

When elected officials stop thinking for themselves and just repeat one man's talking points, we have a problem. That problem gets worse when the man isn't interested in governing – only in getting rich and keeping power through any means necessary.

This isn't a normal administration. It feels like a private equity firm that bought America, ripped the copper out of the walls, and is looting the treasury. In Arizona, too many Republican candidates bow and scrape for one man's endorsement. They all rush to flatter him like he's a naked emperor in invisible gold robes.

Remember Gail Griffin and Andy Biggs? They published an op-ed basically telling him he'd be the bestest, most presidential president ever – if he built some big beautiful dams and water infrastructure.

What are our elected officials going to do now that it's mask-off overt looting and unrestrained militarism? Follow his lead again and come back asking us to raise state taxes to make up the difference? Aren't they the no tax increase party? Are they just going to let seniors, dependent children, and the working poor die without the life-saving health care these programs provide?

The President has signaled his intention to abandon his duties to the people and use that money for his own goals. It's a kleptocracy now. It's beyond blatant: the President's sons merged their golf company with Powerus, a drone company building interceptors trying to sell them to the Pentagon and Gulf countries being pounded by Iranian Shahed drones, right before the attacks on Iran are announced.

What does that mean for us in Southeast Arizona?

We're already hurting. Gas is high. Groceries cost too much. Wages haven't kept up. Our rural hospitals barely stay open. Our local governments are going broke. Our schools need help. Our people need sustainable access to fresh water.

Now Washington wants to cut Medicaid, Medicare, and child care. Why? Because the President wants to approach the Constitution's mandated duties like a geopolitical Shoney's buffet and decided to stack his plate with nothing but war. So much for his campaign promises to lower gas and grocery prices, eh?

Is he even good at the warfare bit? Let's look at Iran. Regardless of how we feel about their government, our recent aggression has made them more powerful in the Persian Gulf. They are now extorting oil shipments to our allies in East Asia. Who pays for that? We do – in higher gas prices, depleted defense stocks, and more American lives at risk. Our friends pay with their access to fuel, now controlled by a newly elevated pirate state. And the civilians in that warzone pay with blood and suffering.

The President started a war based solely on counsel from a loyalist inner circle of nepotism hires, podcasters, and partisan demagogues – and it's costing us more every day. Because of his actions, we are squandering our global influence. And for what? More taxes while our money for medicine goes to bombs that have a habit of killing school girls.

The working class is past breaking point

People in southeastern Arizona are tough. But everyone has a limit. Ripping away health care and social services isn't a budget plan. It's a death sentence for millions of Americans.

The nerve of telling us to just raise state taxes to cover the difference! Working-class Arizonans and retirees are already being crushed. Plus, our state constitution has something called the Gift Clause. It makes it very hard for Arizona to create new social programs unless they match federal money. If Washington pulls the rug, our hands are largely tied.

This makes us less safe, not more

The Department of Homeland Security was supposed to handle real threats. Instead, it's being turned loose on grandma selling tamales at the farmers market – and on irreplaceable workers in construction and agriculture. Military leaders are being fired and replaced by people whose main qualifications are unthinking obedience and party loyalty. We're picking fights with allies and enemies alike.

We're going to pay for this with nearly $6,000 per working Arizonan in additional taxes while we can – and with our lives when we can't. Do you have an extra $6,000 a year you can't find a use for?

So what's the solution? Something different.

We use the reach of the state and its ability to charter and mobilize public benefit corporations to create a voluntary statewide retirement fund that builds worker-owned co-ops – businesses we own together.

Imagine a grocery store in Bisbee or Willcox owned by the people who work there. Prices are based on what you earn. If you make less, you pay less. If you make more, you pay a little more. No chain of Wall Street middlemen taking a cut at every stop between the seed supplier and your plate.

Or a hardware co-op in Safford. Or child care in Sierra Vista owned by local parents.

Here's the smart part: Money you put into a qualified retirement account is not taxed by the state or feds. So you're not paying more taxes. You're just moving money you already make into something you own. It's like switching from renting a house – where you never see that money again – to buying your own home, where you build equity as you go.

That money can't be raided by politicians. It can't be cancelled by the next president. It's ours. And it builds things we actually need – with prices we can actually afford. Most importantly, most of this money stays in our communities paying for what we need instead of fluffing up portfolios on Wall Street.

First, we vote.

Before we can build that future, we have to vote out the people who are enabling the looting. In November, we need to elect leaders who will:

• Modernize antitrust laws for the digital age.

• Protect workers and consumers.

• Empower the people and their communities.

Then we stay involved. We go to local meetings. We hold our representatives accountable. We demand real action – not culture war theater. We've been renters in a country that doesn't serve us. It's time to become owners.

Ryan Slawson is the Democratic candidate for State Senate in southeastern Arizona's LD19. He served as an intelligence officer focused on Iranian backed insurgent groups in the U.S. Army during Operation Iraqi Freedom and owns a small retail business in Sierra Vista.