Why The Name "No Government Cheese"

I was introduced to a relatively unknown band in undergraduate college called The Rainmakers. Their first album, coincidently called The Rainmakers, had a song called Government Cheese. I love the song, and as I am a neo-libertarian (also called a "livid terrier" and "librarian" in some demented circles), it summarizes a part of my personal political philosophy that our welfare state, which has largely incorporated a prejudice of low expectations of the American people that enter it, creates dependency more harmful than not helping at all.


Government Cheese
by Rainmakers

Give a man a free house and he'll bust out the windows
Put his family on food stamps, now he's a big spender
no food on the table and the bills ain't paid
'Cause he spent it on cigarettes and P.G.A.

They'll turn us all into beggars 'cause they're easier to please
They're feeding our people that Government Cheese

Give a man a free lunch and he'll figure out a way
To steal more than he can eat 'cause he doesn't have to pay
Give a woman free kids and you'll find them in the dirt
Learning how to carry on the family line of work
It's the man in the White House, the man under the steeple
Passing out drugs to the American people

I don't believe in anything, nothing is free
They're feeding our people the Government Cheese

Decline and fall, fall down baby
Decline and fall, said fall way down now
Decline and fall, fall down little mama
Decline and fall, decline and fall

Give a man a free ticket on a dead end ride
And he'll climb in the back even though nobody's driving
Too God damned lazy to crawl out of the wreck
And he'll rot there while he waits for the welfare check

Going to hell in a handbag, can't you see
I ain't gonna eat no Government Cheese