22 May 2026 | Jobs Program

The American Radicals Podcast takes a scathing, libertarian critique of the modern federal government, arguing it has abandoned its core mission of protecting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in favor of a sprawling, self-perpetuating jobs program. Host Steve Friend uses President Grover Cleveland’s 1887 veto of a Texas drought relief bill as a cornerstone of his argument: the federal government has no constitutional authority to provide charity or fund scientific research, and doing so weakens national character by creating dependency and resentment. He dismantles current government initiatives—from NIH grant reforms and Ebola aid cuts to remote TSA checkpoints and electric vehicle registration fees—as evidence of a system that prioritizes job creation over constitutional limits. The episode culminates in a damning indictment of Washington, D.C.’s childcare bureaucracy, where it costs $32,000 per child to operate a daycare due to regulatory red tape, funded by taxpayer money that could otherwise be used for private solutions. The central thesis? The government isn’t helping citizens—it’s replacing them, creating artificial demand for jobs and stifling individual initiative under the guise of public service.