How Winnie Brinks Ballooned the Michigan Welfare State
Benson's running mate took $250 million from taxpayers to buy votes in poor cities
When Jocelyn Benson tapped Winnie Brinks as her running mate in the governor’s race, she took a big risk—Brinks is Senate Majority Leader, after all. That’s a big vacancy if they lose.
But if Benson and Brinks are elected in November, that risk shifts to our wallets.
If you work for a living, you will have to work harder and longer to feed the beast of state government. If you claim poverty, or even pregnancy, the welfare state will throw money at you.
In 2025, Brinks wrangled a $250 million earmark for a single NGO, called RxKids. That number jumped $150 million from the $100 million she had requested just one day prior. That’s $250 million for a single program.
On its face, Rx Kids is meant to help expecting moms make it safely to their due date. Moms receive $1,500 during pregnancy, and when the baby is born they get $500 per month for the next year. How generous.
No questions are asked, other than, are you pregnant, and do you live in the right zip code? No means testing is required, and no parameters are set.
RxKids is offered to Moms in “a defined set of communities in Michigan.” Places like Detroit, Flint, and Saginaw. Places like Pontiac, Inkster, and Dearborn.
This is not social justice. This is vote-buying at scale.
If that sounds harsh, Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrat nominee in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race, is worse. El-Sayed believes that America spends too much money on breast cancer research. The public health expert—just ask him—believes that breast cancer is an oversold threat.
Questioning the value of Rx Kids is fair game. Over the last two years, the program has only spent $62 million on direct cash handouts. That’s…not a lot. Not compared to what it received from Lansing.
Naturally, the program has bipartisan support. In a divided Lansing, nothing can pass without it.
Republicans seek earmarks too, and know that blocking one today could result in theirs being blocked tomorrow. Some want the gravy train to roll through their communities, too.
Other Republicans like that the money is a straight-up giveaway, with no state bureaucracy involved. The state cuts a check to Rx Kids, and Rx Kids cuts it to the moms.
The obvious potential for waste, fraud and abuse is ignored, because few officeholders want to be seen as opposing a “women’s health” program when they face re-election.
But all taxation, including taxes that fund Rx Kids, faces one basic problem: It’s theft.
It’s lawmakers and bureaucrats deciding what should be done with your paycheck, and how much of it you can keep. Which causes are most deserving of the money taken by force. Whether it’s pregnant moms or museums.
Benson and Brinks would bring on an expansion of the welfare state.
Yesterday it was Rx Kids. Today, it’s still Rx Kids—the program has received $325 million from your state government over the last five years.
Tomorrow it might be Benson’s allies at ERIC, who help bloat Michigan’s voter rolls by identifying “eligible but unregistered” voters on the eve of election day.
In 2020 alone, they identified 700,000 such people. In a shrinking state of 10 million, how does one find 700,000 unregistered voters in one fell swoop?
Michigan state government can go down one of two paths.
It can continue to tax-and-spend, daring people with means to flee it for low-tax states. Plenty of people have called Michigan’s bluff and left.
Or it will let you keep more of your money in your pocket, to grow your own family, to make your own dreams come true.
Which way, Michigan?
