In his 1935 State of the Union address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made it clear that “the federal government must and shall quit this business of relief.”

At that time, no one foresaw that 90 years later, “quitting that relief” would come about through political gridlock, resulting in what became the most extended federal government shutdown in history.

Here we are. During the shutdown, government relief — at least food relief — ground to a halt, eliciting panic.

Another line in FDR’s speech that day illuminates why: “To dole out relief is like a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.”

He nailed it. The narcotic of government relief has not only persisted, but its potency and quantity have increased by more than tenfold in the number of relief programs and dollars tran

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