Ernst sees a dependent generation

Note: Corrected to reflect that average food assistannce in Iowa is $120 per month, per individual.

Another election cycle, another declaration that we're a bunch of deadbeats.

'What we have to do a better job of is educating not only Iowans, but the American people that they can be self-sufficient,” said Republican U.S. Senate nominee Joni Ernst in a 2013 speech that's grabbing attention in the final days of the 2014 campaign.

'They don't have to rely on the government to be the do-all, end-all for everything they need and desire, and that's what we have fostered, is really a generation of people that rely on the government to provide absolutely everything for them. It's going to take a lot of education to get people out of that. It's going to be very painful, and we know that. So do we have the intestinal fortitude to do that?” Ernst said.

She waxed nostalgic for the days when the poor relied on families, churches, charities and 'wonderful food pantries.”

'Now we're at a point where the government will just give away anything,” Ernst said. Ernst and I are the same age. We've lived in the same state. And I'm curious where she encountered this 'generation” of freeloaders.

It's true that more than 400,000 Iowans receive food assistance, the go-to target for politicians decrying dependency. But it's also true that more than 1.5 million Iowans are working, and 350,000 are enrolled in various universities, colleges, community colleges and other postsecondary programs. It doesn't seem like government dependency has erased our desire to work hard.

There's some overlap. Some folks on public assistance are working or are students. In many cases, the small amount of food assistance they get - an average of $120 per month, per individual - keeps them out of poverty. It may also provide financial breathing room they need to stay in school. According to numbers provided by Dave Swenson, who teaches economics at Iowa State University, 84 percent of personal income in Iowa comes from market activity through work or investment income. About 16 percent comes from the federal government, and two-thirds of that slice is paid out in Social Security and Medicare benefits to the elderly, survivors and disabled Iowans. Medicaid, food stamps and other benefits make up smaller slivers. I'm still not seeing a dependent generation.

But Ernst and politicians like her aren't interested in reality. They're determined to stoke resentments in an era when finding someone to blame is far more politically potent than finding solutions to problems, or even acknowledging their existence.

We used to have entirely appropriate debates over how much public help is warranted and how it should be structured. But what Ernst suggests is that the whole notion of using government resources to help the poor is a big mistake. It's that misguided impulse to help - not poverty, not hunger, not untreated illness, not stagnant, low wages - that she sees as the country's true problem.

We need to learn, apparently, that the best thing to do is declare that poverty is somebody else's problem, not ours, and hope somebody else takes care of it. Supposedly, that takes guts. Luckily, the wonderful food pantries remain open, busy as ever.

l Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@the gazette.com