— Dwight D. Eisenhower
The enormous cost and scope of anti-poverty programs
CBO:
Medicaid Spending on Illegal Aliens Has Cost Taxpayers over $16.2 Billion Under Open Border
Czar Harris. Last week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released
its analysis of the cost to taxpayers of Vice President Kamala Harris' open border agenda on the
Medicaid program. CBO estimates that the Biden-Harris Administration's open border agenda
cost federal and state taxpayers more than $16.2 billion to provide Medicaid-funded emergency
services to illegal aliens since taking office. This is a staggering increase of 124%
compared to the same period under the Trump Administration. This analysis responds to a
request from House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) calling on CBO to produce an
analysis of Medicaid spending on emergency services for illegal aliens.
Reckless Reparations
Reckoning. Here are 10 reasons why the nation's — and especially California's —
discussions of reparatory payouts are dangerous in a multiracial state, and why reparations are not viable either in an
insolvent state or a bankrupt nation at large. [...] [#6] The Heritage Foundation not long ago pegged the cost of Great
Society redistributionist entitlement programs at $22 trillion. For a half-century the courts have engaged in
multibillion dollar reparatory settlements. To take one example, under the so-called Pigford I and II payouts,
black farmers received $5 billion dollars in payouts. Are we to total up thousands of such court settlements or
other compensatory federal entitlements that were race-based to subtract from the current racialized reparatory
obligations? Can a half-century of affirmative action be monetized, calibrated, and deducted from reparatory
obligations? Again, ridiculous questions like that arise because ridiculous people are ridiculously attempting to
monetize purported reparations.
Biggest
Food Stamp Hike Ever, Thanks to Bidenflation. Food stamp benefits are increasing by 12.5 percent as
families grapple with grocery prices that have skyrocketed under President Joe Biden. Under the maximum benefit, a
family of four on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will see their payments increase from $835 to
$939 per month.
Biden
says White House has secured $8 billion in public and private sector funding to help end hunger in the U.S. by
2030. President Joe Biden's administration secured $8 billion in commitments from public and private
entities to end hunger in the United States by 2030, announcing them Wednesday ahead of the White House Conference on
Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. Participants include grocery stores like Hy-Vee, Meijer and Publix, tech and media
companies including Google, Warner Bros. Discovery and Doordash and familiar brands like Chobani. 'We're
announcing over $8 billion in commmitments from over 100 different organizations to help reach our goals,' Biden said as
he opened up the conference Wednesday morning.
The Editor says...
Nobody is ever going to eliminate hunger or poverty. Look carefully, and you'll see they're spending billions of dollars
to "help end hunger in the U.S." You can do that much every time you eat lunch. The Democrats are hoping you don't
notice the difference. They're just re-distributing money.
HUD
announces $2.8 billion in grants for homeless services. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is
providing $2.8 billion in fresh funding for homeless services organizations across the country. The funding, announced
Monday, will be allocated via competitive bids through HUD's Continuum of Care Program, the largest source of federal grant
support to housing and services programs for people experiencing homelessness. HUD funds approximately 7,000 homeless
services projects annually through the program. Applications for the new round of funding are due to HUD by Sept. 29.
Affordable
housing in California now routinely tops $1 million per apartment to build. More than half a dozen affordable
housing projects in California are costing more than $1 million per apartment to build, a record-breaking sum that makes it
harder to house the growing numbers of low-income Californians who need help paying rent, a Times review of state data
found. The seven subsidized housing developments, all in Northern California, received state funding within the last
two years and are under construction or close to breaking ground. When completed, they will provide homes for more than
600 families. But their exorbitant price tags mean that taxpayers are subsidizing fewer apartments than they otherwise
could while waiting lists of renters needing affordable housing continue to grow.
New
method for counting people living homeless in King County finds thousands missing from past tallies. The King
County Regional Homelessness Authority says it is leaving behind an old, ineffective one-night method of counting the number
of people living homeless here for a new approach that takes the full year into account and better includes those living with
mental illness and addiction. The first results: Officials estimate more than 40,000 people were homeless in King
County at some point in 2020. CHS reported here on the county's decision to forego for a second year the old
census-style approach of a single point-in-time tally of people living outside, in vehicles, or under-sheltered. The
last count performed in King County took place in January 2020 and identified nearly 12,000 people experiencing homelessness
where with an increase in the number of people living in cars and RVs. The county's "point in time" counting effort was
overhauled in 2017 with a new approach officials said would provide a more complete look by dispatching teams of three to
four volunteers led by the paid guides across census tracts throughout King County.
Democrats
push $36B subsidy for Obamacare in monster spending bill. The Democratic $1.9 trillion spending bill would
dedicate tens of billions in temporary subsidies for Obamacare plans, a measure meant to address a long-running complaint
about the program: that coverage is unaffordable for many in the middle class. The provisions could benefit
families earning more than six figures, a reflection of the burdensome underlying costs of the plans. Currently, only
those earning between 100%-400% of the federal poverty level are eligible for premium tax credits to help pay for policies on
the Obamacare exchanges. The COVID-19 relief bill will not only expand tax credits for those earners but will also
expand them to anyone making above 400% for the first time. Both were planks in the Biden campaign's healthcare reform
plan. The expansion of the tax credits will cost about $36 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
52.1%
of Kids Live in Households Getting Means-Tested Government Assistance. Today, they are Americans under 18 years
of age growing up in a country where the majority of their peers live in households that take "means-tested assistance" from the
government. In 2016, according to the most recent data from the Census Bureau, there were approximately 73,586,000 people
under 18 in the United States, and 38,365,000 of them — or 52.1 percent — resided in households in which
one or more persons received benefits from a means-tested government program. These included the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (food stamps), Medicaid, public housing, Supplemental Security Income, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women,
Infants and Children, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the National School Lunch Program.
Homeless
encampment relocation plan has California residents outraged. A plan to house hundreds of homeless people in a
tent city near a popular Southern California park was met with fierce public resistance, forcing an upcoming vote to rescind
the scheme. The Orange County Board of Supervisors is set to meet Tuesday to figure out where to relocate people, after
a federal judge forced the county to come up with a plan to house the homeless population located along the Santa Ana
River. One proposal would place about 400 people near the county-owned Orange County Great Park in Irvine, located
40 miles southeast of Los Angeles. The park, which is home to a farmers market and a hot air balloon ride, is popular
with families on weekends.
Crown
Heights residents fear living in 'hell' as homeless crisis grows in neighborhood. The corner of Atlantic and
Bedford Avenues in Crown Heights is Ground Zero of this middle-income neighborhood's high anxiety. For the last two
years, neighbors have complained to anyone who will listen that groups of men become an occupying force in the sidewalks
around the huge 350-bed Atlantic Armory Men's Shelter. On several recent mornings, the men were out en masse.
Food
Stamp Enrollment Drops by Four Million in One Month. Four million people dropped off the food stamp rolls in
one month, according to the latest numbers on food stamp enrollment from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The
latest USDA data show that the number of participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the government
program that administers food stamps, dropped from 45,666,795 in October 2017 to 41,658,868 in November 2017 — a
staggering decrease of 4,007,927 over one month.
Why
are so many people poor in the Golden State? It's not as if California policymakers have neglected to wage war
on poverty. Sacramento and local governments have spent massive amounts in the cause, for decades now. Myriad state
and municipal benefit programs overlap with one another; in some cases, individuals with incomes 200 percent above the
poverty line receive benefits, according to the California Policy Center. California state and local governments spent
nearly $958 billion from 1992 through 2015 on public welfare programs, including cash-assistance payments, vendor payments,
and "other public welfare," according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Unfortunately, California, with 12 percent of the
American population, is home today to roughly one in three of the nation's welfare recipients. The generous spending,
then, has not only failed to decrease poverty; it actually seems to have made it worse.
33
Percent of American Welfare Recipients Live in California. The liberal state of California is a prime example
of why liberal policies must not be adopted anywhere around the country as one-third of America's welfare recipients reside
in the state.
74,531,002
Enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP. As of April, there were 74,531,002 people enrolled in Medicaid and the Children's
Health Insurance Program as of April, according to the latest data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services. That is up 16,705,235 in the 49 states that reported their Medicaid/CHIP enrollment numbers for both the
July-to-September period of 2013 (the last quarter before the Obamacare exchanges opened) and this April. The
74,531,002 enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP as of April includes the numbers for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Nobody Works in One in Five
U.S. Families. No family member was employed in 16,069,000 U.S. families in 2016, or 19.6 percent of families,
according to newly released data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of families with nobody employed increased
by roughly 19,000 from 2015 to 2016, although the percentage slightly declined from 19.7 percent to 19.6 percent.
For the purpose of the study, the bureau counts a family as households headed by a married couple or by unmarried women or
men. The definition includes households with children under 18 years old and households without children.
There were 82,092,000 families in the United States in 2016, according to the bureau. The number of families with no
workers has remained relatively steady since 1995, when the bureau began compiling the data.
In
24 States, 50% or More of Babies Born on Medicaid; New Mexico Leads Nation With 72%. In 24 of the nation's 50
states at least half of the babies born during the latest year on record had their births paid for by Medicaid, according to
the Kaiser Family Foundation. New Mexico led all states with 72 percent of the babies born there in 2015 having their
births covered by Medicaid. Arkansas ranked second with 67 percent; Louisiana ranked third with 65 percent; and three
states — Mississippi, Nevada and Wisconsin — tied for fourth place with 64 percent of babies born there
covered by Medicaid. New Hampshire earned the distinction of having the smallest percentage of babies born on Medicaid.
In that state, Medicaid paid for the births of only 27 percent of the babies born in 2015.
The 35.4 Percent:
109,631,000 on Welfare. 109,631,000 Americans lived in households that received benefits from one or more federally funded
"means-tested programs" — also known as welfare — as of the fourth quarter of 2012, according to data released Tuesday
[3/7/2017] by the Census Bureau. The Census Bureau has not yet reported how many were on welfare in 2013 or the first two quarters of
2014. But the 109,631,000 living in households taking federal welfare benefits as of the end of 2012, according to the Census Bureau,
equaled 35.4 percent of all 309,467,000 people living in the United States at that time.
Los
Angeles votes to tax itself to raise billions to support the homeless. Homelessness advocates in America's
second largest city were savoring a seeming double victory after Los Angeles voters appeared to choose to tax themselves to
raise more than $3.5 [billion] for homeless services over the next decade, and comprehensively knocked down a second measure that
would have slammed the brakes on many housing developments. Tuesday's [3/7/2017] election was the second in a row in which
voters aligned with LA's political leadership in calling for a massive funding effort to move tens of thousands of homeless people
into permanent housing and provide the "wraparound" services they need to overcome addiction, mental health and other challenges.
California's
12,209,605 Medicaid/CHIP Enrollees Outnumber Populations of 44 States. In the fall of 2013, the Obamacare
exchanges opened to enroll people in health insurance plans for 2014. The average number of Medicaid/CHIP enrollees in
California in July-September 2013 — the last quarter before the Obamacare exchanges opened — was
7,755,381, according to CMS. By November 2016, the latest month for which CMS numbers are available, the number of
Medicaid/CHIP enrollees in California was 12,209,605. That is a three-year increase of 4,454,224 — or
57.43 percent.
Number Of Homeless People In
New York City Reaches All-Time High. The number of homeless people living in New York City has reached a
record-high. The Department of Homeless Services reported there were 60,252, up 200 in two weeks. Now, some
are saying the city's current plan to combat homelessness isn't working.
Quality
Inn in Bellerose said to eye severing ties with city homeless agency as crisis on streets hits new record. "I
can do the math — we are going backwards." This is City Council member Barry Grodenchik's assessment of the
homeless crisis since Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Steven Banks nine months
ago. Banks finds himself in one of the most volatile chapters of his career. Protestors from Maspeth, Queens have
been demonstrating on his Brooklyn doorstep as the commissioner deals with a homeless population that has hit record highs
nearly 10 times in the past 23 days. As the historic homeless population sits on the brink of exceeding 60,000,
the agency is now also relying on commercial hotels to house homeless families. PIX11 News reported last week that the city
is using nearly 70 commercial hotels to house the homeless right next to paying guests.
70%
Of Obama's Budget Is Writing Checks To Individuals. What is the federal government's most important function these days?
Based on the Obama budget released today, it's not defense, or roads, or education, or the environment. It's cutting checks.
Buried deep in the president's annual budget are a series of tables that few ever notice, but that are incredibly illuminating when it
comes to understanding the size and scope of today's federal government. The table shows how much money the federal government
spends on what budget officials describe as "payments to individuals." Obama's budget puts the figure for next year at a
mind-boggling $2.9 trillion out of a $4.1 trillion budget.
Census
Bureau: 21.6% of U.S. Children — 15,931,000 of them — on Food Stamps in 2014. Of the
approximately 73,623,000 children under the age of 18 in the United States in 2014, 15,931,000 — or
21.6 percent — were in households that received food stamps, according to data released today by the Census
Bureau. The information comes from Table C8 in the Census Bureau's Families and Living Arrangements data, which is derived
from the Current Population Survey's 2015 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) and which the Census Bureau says reflects
2014 numbers. (The ASEC survey asks respondents about the receipt of food stamps in the previous year.)
Spending
on NYC's homeless to reach close to $1B in 2015: study. The staggering number includes all money spent on the city's
271 shelters from city, state and federal funds, according to the Independent Budget Office report released Thursday [10/15/2015].
In 2007, the three government entities spent a total of $604 million on Big Apple shelters. That will rise to an estimated
$976 million this year.
Food
Stamp Beneficiaries Exceed 45 Million for 50 Straight Months. The number of beneficiaries of the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), otherwise known as food stamps, has exceeded 45 million for 50 straight months,
according to data released by the Department of Agriculture (USDA). In June 2015, the latest month for which data is
available, there were 45,510,153 beneficiaries of the food stamp program, an increase of 14,869 between May and June.
Beneficiaries of this program now exceed the population of Canada, which totals 34,834,841, according to a widely used source
for such figures.
California's
Medi-Cal explosion. California is coming face to face with the reality of one of its biggest Obamacare successes:
the explosion in Medi-Cal enrollment. The numbers — 2.2 million enrollees since January — surprised
healthcare experts and created unforeseen challenges for state officials. Altogether, there are now about 11 million
Medi-Cal beneficiaries, constituting nearly 30% of the state's population.
Illinois
Is Now the Biggest Food-Stamp User in the Midwest. In March of this year, Illinois
bumped off Michigan to become the Midwest's No. 1 user of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program, commonly known as food stamps. For the past several years, Michigan had a higher percentage
of its residents on food stamps than any other Midwest state. But not anymore. Illinois now
has a higher portion of its population on food stamps than any state in the Midwest.
Homelessness
and empty stores becoming the new normal in NYC. The urban streetscape is degrading.
Take a walk down Broadway on the Upper West Side from the 100s to the 70s, as I did Sunday, and
you'll see it everywhere. It seems every barren storefront with a rental sign in the window has
become impromptu outdoor housing for a homeless person. [...] The number of people living on the
street in the neighborhood, or at least taking up daytime residence to beg for change, has skyrocketed
from a mere handful to several dozen or more.
One
in Five Americans Participates in Government Assistance Programs Each Month. "Approximately 52.2 million
(or 21.3 percent) people in the U.S. participated in major means-tested government assistance programs each month in 2012,"
according to the Census Bureau's report. Means-tested programs include Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP), otherwise known as food stamps, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF), and General Assistance (GA). The number of beneficiaries of these means-tested programs has increased significantly
over the last decade. According to the Census, in 2004 there were nearly 42 million monthly recipients of these
programs. Between that year and 2012, monthly participation increased by 24.9 percent.
America's Coming
Transfer of Wealth. According to the CBO's annual Long-Term Budget Outlook, if current
laws were to remain unchanged, government spending as a share of gross domestic product would reach
22.2 percent in fiscal 2025, up from 20.5 percent today. By then, even under a very rosy GDP
growth scenario, the debt would amount to 78 percent of the economy. [...] The deterioration comes fully from
the explosion of major health care programs, Social Security and escalating interest on debt costs. More
precisely, Medicare, Medicaid, Affordable Care Act subsidies, and Social Security are the drivers of our future
debt. Spending on these programs alone could reach 11.8 percent of GDP in fiscal 2025 and
14.2 percent of GDP in 2040, up from 10.1 percent today.
Feds
Spent $100 Billion on Food Assistance Last Year: 109,930,090 Americans participated in overlapping
programs. The federal government spent $100 billion providing food assistance to
Americans last year, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The lion's share of
spending comes from the food stamp program, which gave benefits to an average 46 million Americans
in 2014, at a cost of $74.6 billion, according to a testimony from the GAO's Director of Education,
Workforce, and Income Security Kay E. Brown before the House Subcommittee on Nutrition Wednesday
[5/20/2015]. The national school lunch program was second, costing $11.3 billion, followed
by the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) at $7.1 billion.
Other spending included $1.9 billion for nutrition assistance for Puerto Rico, and $10.7 million for
the "Special Milk Program."
America is a food stamp nation.
The gospel according to Wall Street, the White House and propaganda media is that the U.S. economy
is recovering just fine. [...] Yet as of January 2015, the number of Americans receiving food stamps,
officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, had topped 46 million
for 41 straight months, according to data released by the Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Every month now for more than three years, going back to September 2011, 14.5 percent of the
American population received food stamps.
Homelessness
up 12% in L.A. city and county. The homeless population jumped 12% in the last two years in both the city and
county of Los Angeles, driven by soaring rents, low wages and stubbornly high unemployment, according to a report released
Monday [5/11/2015]. In one of the most striking findings, the number of tents, makeshift encampments and vehicles
occupied by homeless people soared 85%, to 9,535, according to biennial figures from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
The Editor says...
High rent and low wages can be blamed on illegal aliens who should have been stopped at the Mexican border instead of being welcomed in.
High unemployment can be blamed on Obamacare and other red tape and regulations imposed by Barack H. Obama and his minions.
In other words, left-wing liberals are entirely to blame.
Memo:
353,000 Refugees on Food Stamps, 55,000 Receiving Supplemental Security Income. More than 350,000 refugees in
the United States are on food stamps, according the Congressional Research Service (CRS). In a memo to the Senate Judiciary
Committee released Thursday [4/23/2015] but dated April 14, CRS offers data on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP) — or food stamps — and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) use among refugees. It also provided
refugee benefit usage statistics for medical assistance, cash assistance and public housing. In Fiscal Year 2013, there were
about 353,000 refugees on SNAP. As of December 2014, 55,000 refugees, asylees, and other similar populations receiving
payments from SSI, the memo reveals.
$56B: EITC Payouts
Hit Record. The "refundable portion" of Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) payments hit a
record $56,189,578,000 in 2012, the latest year for which the Internal Revenue Service has made data
available. A total of $64,128,627,000 in Earned Income Tax Credits was claimed in 2012. Of that,
$56,189,578,000 was the "refundable portion" — paid out if the Treasury in excess of the net taxes
the recipient owed. That means that only $7,939,049,000 — or 12.4 percent —
of the total Earned Income Tax Credit amount in 2012 was used for a tax reduction.
Michigan
Has More Food Stamp Recipients Than Students. Michigan, which announced on Friday
[12/26/2014] plans to begin drug testing some welfare recipients, currently has 1,679,421
individuals on food stamps (known officially as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or
SNAP), according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. According to the Michigan Department of
Education, the state's total pupil count for K-12 is 1,564,114. [...] [In 2014], Michigan's food
stamp program cost taxpayers $2,576,165,148.
65
Percent of Children Live in Households on Federal Aid Programs. The Census Bureau reported in a study released this
week that 65 percent of American children lived in households taking aid from one or more federal program as of the fall of
2011. "Almost two-thirds (65 percent) of children," said the Census Bureau, "lived in households that participated in
at least one or more of the following government aid programs: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children
(WIC), Medicaid, and the National School Lunch Program." How to be dependent on government is now one of the earliest
life lessons America is teaching nearly a supermajority of children.
Federal
Spending by the Numbers, 2014. In FY 2012, the total cost of federal and state means-tested
welfare programs reached nearly $950 billion, an all-time high. Welfare spending has increased
16-fold since the federal government began the "War on Poverty" in the 1960s and is projected only to
increase. This does not include spending on Social Security or Medicare. Today, there are
roughly 80 federal means-tested welfare programs, including major programs like Medicaid, food stamps, the
refundable Earned Income Tax Credit, public housing, Supplemental Security Income, and Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families. Food stamps are one of the largest and fastest-growing means-tested welfare programs.
Costs have doubled in inflation-adjusted terms since 2008. In 2012, more than 46 million Americans
received food stamps every month.
Nearly
1 in 5 Households Will Celebrate Thanksgiving on Food Stamps. Nearly one in five U.S.
households will celebrate Thanksgiving on food stamps this year, according to the latest data from
the U.S. Department of Agriculture on participation in the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance
Program. Back in fiscal 2000, there were 106,061,000 households in the United States and,
according to a USDA report published in November 2012, there was a monthly average of 7,335,000
households — or 6.9 percent — getting food stamps that year.
Food
Stamp Recipients Top 46 Million for 36th Straight Month. The number of beneficiaries
on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — food stamps — has now topped 46,000,000 for
36 straight months, according to new data released by the Department of Agriculture (USDA).
From September 2011 through August 2014, the latest month for which data is available, the number of
persons participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has exceeded 46 million.
Nearly
68,000 Florida Students Using Tax Credit Scholarships. The scholarships, worth $5,272
apiece this year, are limited to families who qualify for free- or reduced-price lunch, meaning
family incomes below 185 percent of the federal poverty level. Partial scholarships are available
for renewal students in households up to 230 percent of poverty. This year's preliminary data
shows the average income of participating families is 5 percent above poverty. Nearly
70 percent of scholarship students are black or Hispanic.
Alaska,
West Coast lead U.S. in receiving welfare. Alaska has the highest rate of residents
receiving welfare of any state. The Census Bureau reported Tuesday [9/2/2014] that almost 7 percent of
people in the Frontier State receive public assistance from the federal or state government, more than a
percentage point more than the state with the next highest rate.
The Editor says...
The seven percent figure is surprisingly low because it includes only those who receive TANF/AFDC, and excludes the recipients of food stamps or disability insurance.
Data
shows more than a THIRD of the U.S. is on welfare handouts. New census data has
revealed that around 110 million Americans are receiving government assistance of some kind.
The number includes people receiving 'means-tested' federal benefits and subsidies based on income.
Those receiving food stamps, subsidised housing and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families are also
included in the total. At the end of 2012 around 83 million were collecting Medicaid and 51.5 million
were on food stamps, with some benefitting from multiple programs. Analysts have raised concerns that the
programs are encouraging people to stay at home rather than work.
That bad, huh?
Retailers
want food stamp data secret. Retail chains that accept food stamps are fighting a
regulatory initiative to make public store-by-store data on their participation in the $80 billion
government program. How many food stamps — known officially as the Supplemental
Nutritional Assistance Program — are redeemed at which stores has long been viewed by the
companies and the Department of Agriculture as a commercial trade secret and thus exempt from
disclosure. But a recent federal appeals court decision on a Freedom of Information Act
request by a South Dakota newspaper has forced USDA to reconsider that stance.
Census
figures show more than one-third of Americans receiving welfare benefits. Newly
released Census data reveals nearly 110 million Americans — more than one-third of the
country — are receiving government assistance of some kind. The number counts people
receiving what are known as "means-tested" federal benefits, or subsidies based on income. This
includes welfare programs ranging from food stamps to subsidized housing to the program most commonly
referred to as "welfare," Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. At the end of 2012, according
to the stats, 51.5 million were on food stamps, while 83 million were collecting Medicaid — with
some benefitting from multiple programs.
The 35.4
Percent: 109,631,000 on Welfare. 109,631,000 Americans lived in households that
received benefits from one or more federally funded "means-tested programs" — also known
as welfare — as of the fourth quarter of 2012, according to data released Tuesday [8/19/2014]
by the Census Bureau. The Census Bureau has not yet reported how many were on welfare in 2013 or the
first two quarters of 2014. But the 109,631,000 living in households taking federal welfare
benefits as of the end of 2012, according to the Census Bureau, equaled 35.4 percent of all
309,467,000 people living in the United States at that time. When those receiving benefits from
non-means-tested federal programs — such as Social Security, Medicare, unemployment and
veterans benefits — were added to those taking welfare benefits, it turned out that
153,323,000 people were getting federal benefits of some type at the end of 2012. Subtract the
3,297,000 who were receiving veterans' benefits from the total, and that leaves 150,026,000 people
receiving non-veterans' benefits.
Americans
Got $2 Trillion in Benefits from Federal Government in 2013. The treasury statement
summarizes the financial activities of the federal government, including data on government
receipts, outlays, and surplus and deficit totals. The September 2013 monthly treasury statement
calculates these metrics for the entire fiscal year of 2013, which began on October 1, 2012 and
ended on September 30, 2013. According to the statement, the federal government's total outlays,
otherwise known as spending, for means-tested and non-means tested government programs —
not including administrative expenses — totaled $2,007,611,200,000 in fiscal year 2013.
Homeless
People Shower on New Bus in San Francisco. In May, San Francisco introduced the "Hook-up Truck," providing intimate space
for couples on the go. Now, the city is welcoming the "Lava Mae," a public shower on a bus, aimed at the city's large homeless
population. San Francisco has been fighting a losing battle with homelessness for decades. City officials concede that they
have made little progress over the years despite massive spending, amounting to $34 per homeless person per day.
Food
Stamp Recipients Outnumber Women Who Work Full-Time. People participating in the food
stamp program outnumbered the women who worked full-time, year-round in the United States in 2012,
according to data from the Department of Agriculture and the Census Bureau. In the average month of
2012, according to the Department of Agriculture, there were 46,609,000 people participating in the
food stamp program (formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). That contrasts
with the 44,059,000 women who worked full-time, year-round in 2012, according to the Census Bureau's
report on Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States.
Obama
proposes billions more for job training despite spotty track record. Despite spotty evidence that the billions of dollars spent
on dozens of federal job training programs are delivering results, President Obama is proposing to spend billions more as
part of his $4 trillion budget plan. On the federal level, the government already spends about $18 billion
a year to provide multiple services to unemployed workers on everything from career counseling to job training and
searching. About half that money goes to Labor Department programs.
Welfare In America: A $1 Trillion Tab
And Rising. Republicans in Congress are being accused of fighting a "war on the war on poverty," in part because of a tiny cut in the food stamps
program last week. Democrats charge that these "cuts" will take food from the mouths of hungry children, and they claim this is an example of how Congress
has shred the safety net for the poor. Never mind that this is the food aid program that has tripled in cost and doubled in participation in just the last
decade. Even during the economic recovery, the number of recipients — one in seven Americans — continues to grow.
Pork in the Farm Bill. The farm bill will
cost taxpayers about $950 billion over the next ten years. Lawmakers are calling this a $23 billion cut. But as Veronique de
Rugy and my colleague Chris Edwards have pointed out, this is a cut only in the Washington sense of spending less than previously predicted. In
reality, it represents an inflation-adjusted $258 billion increase over the ten-year cost of the last farm bill, in 2008. That's a
whopping 37 percent jump in real spending! The largest part of this spending is not for farm programs but for food stamps. The
bill provides approximately $756 billion in funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) through 2023.
Seven Devastating Economic Facts.
[#3] 47.4 Million Americans Now Rely on Food Stamps. The Department of Agriculture, which oversees the food stamp program,
says that 47,415,895 Americans — roughly one out of every six Americans — now receives food stamps. Indeed, for
the last fifteen consecutive months, the number of individuals has consistently stayed above 47 million, a first in U.S. history.
Food stamp enrollments, which are considered an indicator of economic distress, have skyrocketed in recent years as the Obama administration
has loosened eligibility requirements and aggressively promoted enrollments.
CRS: 'Likely Take Several
Years or More Before Poverty Rates Recede'. The number of people living in poverty in the United States hit a record last year, according
to Census Bureau data cited by CRS, and the poverty rate remained stuck at its highest level in two decades. "The 46.5 million persons counted
as poor in 2012 is the largest number counted in the measure's recorded history, which goes back as far as 1959, and the 2012 poverty rate of 15.0% is
the highest seen since 1993," said CRS in the report, which was published in November.
Only the Self-Reliant Remain Free. The
Census Bureau recently published some remarkable data. As of the end of 2011, it said, there were approximately 151,014,000 who received one or
more benefits from the federal government. That was 49 percent of the population of the country, which then stood at 306,804,000. Some
of the people receiving federal benefits had paid payroll taxes their entire working lives in return for the privilege of living in government dependency
during their retirement. 49,901,000 were on Social Security, according to the Census Bureau, and 46,440,000 were on Medicare. Others, however,
were simply on the dole. 108,592,000 people in the United States as the end of 2011 were enrolled in one or more federal means-tested welfare
programs, according to the Census Bureau.
Obama Trashes America to
Save ObamaCare. The U.S. is hugely generous to those who can't afford to pay for health care. Hospitals spend more than $40 billion
a year doing so. Doctors generously provide billions of dollars worth of free or discounted care to those who need help. There are various
philanthropies that raise billions each year for charity care. And that's to say nothing of the existing government programs. Taxpayers fork
over $415 billion a year so Medicaid can provide health care for the poor, and another $500 billion for Medicare. There's the VA for
veterans and various state-run programs as well. So, no, the health care system isn't now and never has been the cold, cruel, heartless disaster
that the Obamas make it out to be.
Grand Theft Obama: The Biggest Heist in U.S.
History. [Scroll down] The consequences of welfare state policies are evident everywhere. Consider the following statistics:
• 49 percent of Americans receive some kind of public assistance.
• More people collect means-tested benefits today (108.6 million) than there are full-time workers (101.7 million)
• 1.2 million homeless children attend public school, up 72 percent since the recession began.
• 46.6 million people receive food stamps, the highest number in recorded history.
• 46.5 million Americans live in poverty. This is the first time the poverty rate has remained at or
above 15% three years running since 1965.
• Median household income is 9% below what it was in 1999.
Nation's poor at
49.7M, higher than official rate. The number of poor people in America is 3 million higher than the official count, encompassing
1 in 6 residents due to out-of-pocket medical costs and work-related expenses, according to a revised census measure released Wednesday [11/6/2013].
Much-Abused Food
Stamp Program Can Be Cut Responsibly. The $5 billion reduction set to hit in November is a drop in the ocean for a nearly
$80 billion-per-year program serving nearly 47 million people, especially considering how the program has exploded in the last five years, more
than doubling from $34.6 billion to $74.6 billion. Moreover, that relatively small $5 billion cut is a return to normal after a
"temporary" increase enacted in 2009 as part of President Obama's and the Democratic Congress' massive stimulus-that-never-stimulated. By now,
you see, Obamanomics was supposed to have left the U.S. economy enjoying a Keynesian cavalcade of prosperity. Instead, in spite of the weak Obama
"recovery," the number of food stamp recipients soared from 28.2 million in 2008 to 46.6 million last year.
Welfare, Not Full-Time
Work, Is Now America's No. 1 Occupation. CNSNews.com's indefatigable data hound, Terence P. Jeffrey, dug into a few routine Census releases
recently and discovered something shocking: More people in America today are on welfare than have full-time jobs. No, that's not a misprint.
At the end of 2011, the last year for which data are available, some 108.6 million people received one or more means-tested government benefit
programs — bureaucratese for welfare. Meanwhile, there were just 101.7 million people with full-time jobs, the Census data show,
including both the private and government sectors.
Census Bureau: Means-Tested
Gov't Benefit Recipients Outnumber Full-Time Year-Round Workers. Americans who were recipients of means-tested government benefits in 2011
outnumbered year-round full-time workers, according to data released this month by the Census Bureau. They also out-numbered the total population
of the Philippines. There were 108,592,000 people in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2011 who were recipients of one or more means-tested
government benefit programs, the Census Bureau said in data released this week. Meanwhile, according to the Census Bureau, there were 101,716,000 people
who worked full-time year round in 2011. That included both private-sector and government workers.
US poverty rate remains stuck at 15 percent.
The nation's poverty rate stood still at 15 percent last year, the sixth straight year that it has failed to improve.
Census: 49% of Americans Get
Gov't Benefits; 82M in Households on Medicaid. In the fourth quarter of 2011, 49.2 percent of Americans received benefits from one or more
government programs, according to data released Tuesday [10/22/2013] by the Census Bureau. In total, the Census Bureau estimated, 151,014,000 Americans
out of a population then estimated to be 306,804,000 received benefits from one or more government programs during the last three months of 2011. Those
151,014,000 beneficiaries equaled 49.2 percent of the population.
More Than Half of U.S. Fast Food Workers
on Public Aid. The Los Angeles Times, in its effort to support the unionizing of the fast-food industry, quotes a report by economists at
UC Berkeley and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that asserts more than half of families of fast food workers get financial aid totaling
$7 billion yearly from the federal government.
U.S. Report Makes Case for Food Stamp
Increase. The Obama administration blew an astounding $80 billion on food stamps last year but it wasn't enough to put a dent in
the national epidemic of "food insecure" households, according to a new government study that aims to justify pouring larger sums of taxpayer
dollars into the bulging welfare program. It's like there's no end to the madness! In 2012 a record 47 million people got food
stamps, according to the government's own figures. Uncle Sam spent an unprecedented $80 billion on the program, marking an unbelievable
$2.7 billion increase from the previous year.
Food-Stamp Use Rises; Some 15% Get Benefits.
Food-stamp use rose 2.4% in the U.S. in May from a year earlier, with more than 15% of the U.S. population receiving benefits. [...] The number of recipients in the food
stamp program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), is at 47.6 million, or nearly one in six Americans.
101M Get Food Aid from
Federal Gov't; Outnumber Full-Time Private Sector Workers. The number of Americans receiving subsidized food assistance
from the federal government has risen to 101 million, representing roughly a third of the U.S. population. The U.S. Department
of Agriculture estimates that a total of 101,000,000 people currently participate in at least one of the 15 food programs offered by
the agency, at a cost of $114 billion in fiscal year 2012.
101
million! Recipients of govt. food aid outnumber workers in US. There are now more Americans receiving assistance
from the federal government to eat than there are full time workers in the country. The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture estimates
that the number of people participating in at least one of the 15 food assistance programs offered is now at 101 million,
CNS News reported.
U.S. Gives 1/3 of Puerto Rico Food Stamps.
As if it weren't bad enough that a record 47.7 million people — and growing — get food stamps from the U.S.
government, federal records reveal that a whopping 1/3 of Puerto Rico's population receives them. This cost American taxpayers an
astounding $2 billion last year, according to figures released by the government agency — the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) — that distributes the benefit.
Government
Dependence In U.S. Reaches Absurd Levels. Government dependence in the United States has reached a level never
seen before. 50 years ago, the federal government handed out about 10 cents for every dollar that American workers
earned. Now, the federal government hands out about 35 cents for every dollar that American workers earn. [...] If
you can believe it, more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program, and more than 70 percent
of all spending by the federal government goes to "dependence-creating programs". If we really are "the greatest economy on
earth", then why is the number of people dependent on the government absolutely exploding?
Food Stamps Don't Stimulate Economic
Growth. First, food stamps are intended to serve as a temporary safety net for those who face economic hardship, not as an
economic stimulus. To justify food stamps as a stimulus to raise government revenue ignores the long-term economic consequences
of welfare spending. Total government welfare spending has reached nearly $1 trillion annually, and the food stamps program
is one of the largest of the government's approximately 80 welfare programs, costing taxpayers roughly $80 billion a year.
Congress
is getting closer to passing the $1 trillion farm bill, and it is a piece of work. Despite the Obama administration's
continual insistence that the economy is on the mend, the USDA's food-stamp program has exploded by approximately 70 percent since
2008 alone. There are a record of almost 49 million Americans on food stamps these days, both because the Obama
administration's persistent relaxation of the program's requirements and because of the administration's failure to move-and-shake
the economy out of stagnation mode with their directly counterproductive big-government policies.
Record 10,978,040 Now on
Disability; 'Disability' Would Be 8th Most Populous State. The total number of people in the United States now receiving federal disability
benefits hit a record 10,978,040 in May, up from 10,962,532 million in April, according to newly released data from the Social Security Administration.
The 10,978,040 disability beneficiaries in the United States now exceed the population of all but seven states.
The Editor says...
The hypothetical State of Disability would probably have the highest per capita income and the lowest GDP, too.
72,600,000: Record Number
on Medicaid in 2012. A record 72,600,000 were enrolled in Medicaid for at least one month in fiscal 2012, up from 71,700,000 in fiscal
2011, according to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC), which provides an annual report to Congress on Medicaid and the
Children's Health Insurance Program. The 72,600,000 enrolled in Medicaid in the United States in 2012 was more than the 65,630,692 people
who lived in France last year, according to data published by the Census Bureau, or the 63,047,162 people who lived in the United Kingdom.
Unsustainable and Unconstitutional
General Welfare Spending. Obviously, there is a spending problem in Washington, D.C., and the reason for it is no mystery. The
largest expenditure in Obama's budget — and the largest federal outlay in every budget since 1970 — is an expense item labeled
"payments for individuals," which includes spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment benefits, disability payments, and other
federal welfare subsidies. These payments constituted 65 percent of all federal spending in 2012 and are expected to grow to 70 percent
in 2016. (By contrast, national defense spending was 19 percent of the federal budget in 2012 and will decrease to only 14 percent in 2016.)
Record Number of Households on
Food Stamps- 1 out of Every 5. The latest available data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows that
a record number 23 million households in the United States are now on food stamps. The most recent Supplemental Assistance
Nutrition Program (SNAP) statistics of the number of households receiving food stamps shows that 23,087,886 households participated in
January 2013 — an increase of 889,154 families from January 2012 when the number of households totaled 22,188,732.
The Great Society needs to be replaced by the Free Society.
America On Welfare. Nearly two decades ago
welfare reform briefly captured political attention and won bipartisan support. The effort was a great success. But most
welfare programs remained untouched and the gains have been steadily eroded. Today nearly 48 million people, almost one
out of every six Americans, receive Food Stamps. Outlays on this program alone have quadrupled in just a decade.
Indeed, the government actively promotes the program, encouraging people to sign up.
Nearly two million NYC residents are on food stamps.
They've fallen through the cracks: millions of jobless or underemployed New Yorkers whose daily struggle is to find work and food. They certainly don't
show up in the 9.1 percent unemployment rate for the city, since they have exhausted those benefits. But the number of city residents on food stamps is
on pace to jump this year from just above 1 million in 2007 to a breathtaking 2 million sometime this summer.
Obama's plan hatched at Columbia
University. Under Obama, 660,000 Americans dropped off the job rolls... just last month. 90 million working-age, able-bodied Americans
are no longer in the workforce. 90 million. The workforce participation rate is the lowest since 1979. For men it's the lowest since
1948 (when record keeping began). Almost 50 million Americans are on food stamps (20% of all eligible adults). 14 million are on disability.
Millions more are on welfare, unemployment, housing allowances, aid to dependent children, or 100 other free government programs.
Foodstamp
Recipients Hit Record, Alongside Record Dow Jones And Record Debt. According to the USDA, an all time high of 47,791,966
Americans closed 2012 in possession of the highly desired Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, managed by who else but JPMorgan.
And with a civilian non-institutional population of 244.4 million in December, this means that a record 19.56% of eligible Americans
are on Foodstamps.
New York's homeless
population reaches record high of 50,000-plus: report. The number of homeless people recorded in city shelters
each night has topped 50,000 for the first time, a new report has found. An average of 50,135 people —
including 21,034 children — slept in shelters each night in January, the Coalition for the Homeless said.
CBO: Entitlements, ObamaCare To
Make Up 53% of Federal Spending. According to projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), entitlements
and ObamaCare spending will comprise 53 percent of all federal spending over the coming decade, totaling $24.9 trillion.
In its updated Budget and Economic Outlook report released on Tuesday, the CBO projects that Social Security will account
for $11.149 trillion in spending from 2014 to 2023 while federal health care entitlements, including Medicare, Medicaid, and
ObamaCare, will spend $13.85 trillion. (That total includes TRICARE, CHIP, and "other" spending listed by the CBO under
healthcare.)
First Term: Food Stamp
Recipients Increased 11,133 Per Day Under Obama. During President Obama's first term, the number of persons taking federal
food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP), increased by approximately 11,133 persons per
day. When Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, the number of SNAP recipients was 31,939,110. By October 2012, the latest
month reported, they had jumped to 47,525,329. That means the food stamp program grew by an of approximately 11,133 recipients per
day from January 2009 to October 2012.
Federal Welfare
Spending to Skyrocket 80 Percent in Next Decade. Federal welfare spending will skyrocket 80 percent over the next decade,
according to new analysis by the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee.
Obama's New Economic
Normal: Seven Devastating Facts. [#2] All-time record food stamp participation: As of last month, for the first time in
American history, 47,710,324 individuals — roughly one out of every seven people living in the United States — now
receive food stamps.
Obama's America Will Become Detroit. The Census Bureau
estimates there are 563,055 people age 16 or older in the city [of Detroit] who could potentially work and be part of the labor force. But only
54.3 percent of these — or 305,479 individuals — actually do participate in the labor force, meaning they either have a job or are
looking for one. Another 257,576 of Detroit residents age 16 or older — 45.7 percent of that demographic — do not participate in
the labor force. They do not have a job, and they are not looking for one. [...] There are 264,209 households in Detroit, and 91,204 of them —
or 34.5 percent — get food stamps.
One million Americans
entered poverty in the last two months. It will take a while for Americans to get used to the new normal; having to work two or three
part time jobs instead of a full time job because basically, there aren't any. But as we discovered from observing people who live in
totalitarian communist states, people can get used to anything.
United Welfare State of America:
US Now Spends Over $1 Trillion on Welfare. On Thursday [12/6/2012], the Senate Budget Committee released a startling welfare
spending report based on a new Congressional Research Study. According to the report in 2011 the United States spent $1.028 trillion
dollars on welfare, which is more than the states and federal government spent on Social Security, Non-Military Defense or Medicare.
The federal spending on welfare entitlements now accounts for one fifth of the federal budget and consumes over 5% of the GDP. This is
almost a 30% spending increase since the start of the Obama Administration.
We Spend HOW MUCH On Welfare? According to
the US Census, individuals below the poverty line have increased from just under 40 million in 2008 to over 46 million in 2010, an
increase from 13.2% to 15.1% of our population. In other words, we've thrown WAY more money at the problem, which has paradoxically only
made the problem worse.
Food stamp use
reaches another high in September: 47.7 million participants. Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,
or food stamps, reached another high in September, according to new data released by the United Stated Department of Agriculture. The
most recent data on SNAP participation were released Friday [12/7/2012], and showed that 47,710,324 people were enrolled in the program in
September, an increase of 607,559 from the 47,102,765 enrolled in August.
'Welfare Spending
Equates to $168 Per Day for Every Household in Poverty'. The amount of money spent on welfare programs equals, when converted
to cash payments, about "$168 per day for every household in poverty," the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee finds.
A Nation of Takers Hurtles Toward
the Fiscal Abyss. The on-going negotiations over avoiding the tax hikes and spending cuts we call the "fiscal cliff" are the simply
the latest act in a farce of self-serving political denial. For decades now both parties have overseen and nurtured the expansion of the
entitlement state all the while ignoring the slow-motion economic implosion whose predictable end can be seen today in a bankrupt Greece currently
surviving on EU handouts.
Exclusive:
Food Stamp Recipients Outnumber Populations of 24 States Combined. Since January 2009, the number of individuals on food stamps has
skyrocketed from 31.9 million to the current record high 47.1 million. By comparison, in 1969 just 2.8 million Americans received
food stamps. Also benefiting from the rapid rise in food stamps are companies like JP Morgan who administer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards.
A recent report by the Government Accountability Institute found that since 2004, JP Morgan's 24 state EBT contracts have totaled at least
$560,492,596.02. Last year, the food stamp program (officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP) cost taxpayers
$72 billion, more than double the $30 billion spent four years ago.
5 Signs Of Societal Degeneration In America.
There are 47 million Americans on food stamps, which is an all-time high. That's more than 1 out of every 7 Americans. Since 2008 more Americans
have gone onto Social Security disability than the net number of jobs that have been created in that same time period. Within the living memory of some Americans
there was no Social Security or Medicare in this country; yet we've gone from 16 workers for each retiree in 1950 to 3.3 today to an estimated 2 workers
per retiree in 2025.
Foodstamps
Surge to All Time High. The Obama administration has finally released its report on the number of Americans receiving food stamps.
This report was released days after the 2012 election, nine days past its traditional release date. The numbers show that Americans on food stamps
is at an all time high. Worse, the report shows the highest one month jump ever recorded.
Foodstamps
Surge to All Time High. You may recall that just before the election, the Obama administration announced that Hurricane Sandy was going
to delay the release of October's jobless numbers. [...] While the unemployment report was ultimately released on schedule and before the election,
now we find out about another report, the food stamp report, delayed for nine days after its traditional release date. This report was also
supposed to have been released before the election. This report is devastating.
Foodstamps Surge By Most
In One Year To New All Time Record, In Delayed Release. [Scroll down] There was, however, another closely tracked number which
perhaps is far more indicative of the economic "growth" in the past 4 years, which certainly had a delayed release. The number of course
is that showing how many Americans are on foodstamps, and usually is released at the end of the month, or the first day or two of the next month.
This time the USDA delayed its release nine days past the semi-official deadline, far past the election, and until Friday night to report August
foodstamp data.
Record 70.4 Million Enrolled in Medicaid
in 2011: 1 Out of Every 5 Americans. A record 70.4 million people were enrolled in the Medicaid health care program for the poor in
fiscal year 2011, according to government figures provided to CNSNews.com. That figure equals about 22 percent of the population, which
means there was one person on Medicaid for every five Americans in 2011.
Government
Welfare Payments Top $1 Trillion for the First Time. In response to a request from the Senate Budget Committee, the
Congressional Research Service (CRS) reported that federal welfare spending reached three-quarters of a trillion dollars last year.
When added to what the states spent on welfare, another $300 billion, total government welfare payments in 2011 hit
$1.03 trillion. More unnerving is that the report from the CRS didn't include spending on Social Security or Medicare.
Putting it all together, federal spending on welfare greatly exceeded spending on the military ($540 billion), Social Security
($725 billion), Medicare ($480 billion) as well as the Departments of Justice ($31 billion), Transportation
($77 billion) and Education ($65vbillion).
Welfare spending jumps 32%
in four years. Welfare spending has grown substantially over the past four years, reaching $746 billion in
2011 — or more than Social Security, basic defense spending or any other single chunk of the federal government —
according to a new memo by the Congressional Research Service. The steady rise in welfare spending, which covers more
than 80 programs primarily designed to help low-income Americans, got a big boost from the 2009 stimulus and has grown,
albeit somewhat more slowly, in 2010 and 2011. One reason is that more people are qualifying in the weak economy, but the federal
government also has broadened eligibility so that more people qualify for programs.
America
Won't Survive Another Four Years of Obama. 20% of Americans received some kind of means-tested
government check in 2008, when George W. Bush left office. Now 32% of Americans get some kind of
means-tested support — food stamps, disability, welfare, and so forth. That's a third of the
country. Transfer payments are now fully one-fifth of personal income, as I observed in an essay last year.
Obama's arbitrary and perhaps illegal changes in welfare work requirements create a cycle of dependency, as the Romney
campaign has warned.
It's Not Really a Farm Bill: It's a food stamp
behemoth. This week, Congress is under pressure to pass the 2012 farm bill before the current legislation expires on September 30.
About every five years, Congress pushes through a farm bill, ostensibly a big bundle of agriculture subsidies that also funds food stamps. But the
name is misleading. Nearly 80 percent of the $1 trillion the 2012 bill would spend over the next 10 years would go to the food
stamp program.
Food-Stamp
Use Climbs to Record, Reviving Campaign Issue. Food-stamp use reached a record 46.7 million people in June, the
government said, as Democrats prepare to nominate President Barack Obama for a second term with the economy as a chief issue in the
campaign. Participation was up 0.4 percent from May and 3.3 percent higher than a year earlier and has remained greater
than 46 million all year as the unemployment rate stayed higher than 8 percent.
Food-stamp folly. [S]pending on the
food-stamp program (also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) has been growing rapidly for some time now, from
$19.8 billion in 2000 to $84.6 billion in 2011. Under the president's budget, this trend would continue, with nearly
$800 billion in food-stamp spending over the next decade.
165 Million Americans Are Dependents of
the State: Is Tyranny Next? New research from Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee Jeff Sessions (R-AL) reveals that this reality
may already be here, with more than 107 million Americans on some form of means-tested government welfare. Add to that 46 million seniors
collecting Medicare (subtracting out about 10 million on Supplemental Security Income, Medicaid, and other senior-eligible programs already included
in Sessions' means-tested chart) and 22 million government employees at the federal, state, and local level — and suddenly, over
165 million people, a clear majority of the 308 million Americans counted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2010, are at least partially
dependents of the state.
Over 100 Million Now Receiving
Federal Welfare. "The federal government administers nearly 80 different overlapping federal means-tested welfare programs,"
the Senate Budget Committee notes. However, the committee states, the figures used in the chart do not include those who are only
benefiting from Social Security and/or Medicare. Food stamps and Medicaid make up a large — and growing —
chunk of the more than 100 million recipients. "Among the major means tested welfare programs, since 2000 Medicaid has
increased from 34 million people to 54 million in 2011 and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food
stamps) from 17 million to 45 million in 2011," says the Senate Budget Committee. "Spending on food stamps alone
is projected to reach $800 billion over the next decade."
More Than 100 Million
Americans Are On Welfare. There are more Americans dependent on the federal government than ever before in U.S. history. According to the
Survey of Income and Program Participation conducted by the U.S. Census, well over 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run
by the federal government. Many are enrolled in more than one. That is about a third of the entire population of the country. Sadly, that
figure does not even include Social Security or Medicare.
SNAP statistics: Apparently updated regularly.
The U.S.
Economy By The Numbers:
5,400,000 — When Barack Obama first took office there were 2.7 million long-term unemployed Americans. Today there are twice as many.
16,000,000 — It is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.
46,405,204 — The number of Americans currently on food stamps. When Barack Obama first entered the White House there were
only 32 million Americans on food stamps.
Food Stamp Rules Change Adds
$460 Million to Cost in Fiscal 2010. Nearly 3 percent of the households that receive food stamps in United States would have been
ineligible to receive them if the income eligibility rules had not been changed, the Government Accountability Office has reported. According to
the GAO, in fiscal year 2010 the government spent an extra $460 million on the food stamp program — $38 million per month, or about
$1.26 million per day — because of relaxed limits on the amount of income a household may have and still receive the assistance. [...] About
one in seven Americans are now on food stamps.
This is why we can't build that.
In 2009, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the top 1 percent of income earners earned 13.4 percent of income in
the U.S., but paid 22.3 percent of all federal taxes. Given that the government collected $2.1 trillion of revenue in
2009, this would translate into roughly $468 billion in taxes paid by the top 1 percent. That same year, according to
the CBO, the federal government spent $87 billion on transportation and water infrastructure. Put another way, the taxes paid
by the top 1 percent in 2009 were more than five times what the federal government spent on infrastructure that year —
which includes some stimulus spending. The reason the federal government couldn't spend more than $87 billion on
infrastructure was that most tax dollars were tied up paying for major entitlement programs.
The Welfare State — You Didn't Build That. The
welfare state is the single biggest financial problem we face, annually consuming more than the combined cost of the Iraq
and Afghanistan wars plus the TARP bailouts. Like The Blob, it grows by devouring everything in its path, requiring us to
borrow $41,222 per second just to keep government running.
8,753,935: Workers on
Disability Set Another Record in July; Exceed Population of 39 States. The number of workers taking federal disability insurance
payments hit yet another record in July, increasing to 8,753,935 during the month from the previous record of 8,733,461 set in June, according to
newly released data from the Social Security Administration. The 8,753,935 workers who took federal disability insurance payments in July
exceeded the population of 39 of the 50 states.
80% Of
Trillion Dollar 'Farm Bill' Spent On Food Stamps, Not Farmers, Senator Says. Last night, radio host Mark Levin
interviewed Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) about the recent U.S. Department of Agriculture agreement with the government of Mexico
to "help educate eligible Mexican nationals living in the United States about available nutrition assistance," which includes
the US food stamp program. Sen. Sessions explained that the funding for this program came from a "farm bill" in 2002, which
allocated $800 billion over 10 years for the entire US food stamp program — meaning that 80 percent of
this trillion dollar "farm bill" program is spend on food stamps, leaving only 20 percent to go to farmers.
More Texas seniors receiving food
stamps. The fastest-growing group of Texans receiving food stamps is the 60-64 age bracket. In the past six years, those residents
receiving food assistance — now issued in the form of a benefit debit card — has jumped by 106 percent to 85,000 as of
this month, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. The total number of recipients from all age groups has
increased 58 percent.
6 charts that show the Welfare State
run amok. The original purpose of Medicaid was to provide improved healthcare access for poor people, while not
turning the safety net into a trap. Under President Obama's Affordable Care Act, Medicaid will be greatly exapnded beyond
what Congress originally intended. [...] A few scary factoids:
• In the 1960s, there were 18 workers per Medicaid recipient. Today that number is 2.5.
• The number of Americans on disability has risen 19% faster than jobs created during this recovery.
• There are just 1.2 private sector workers per 1 person on welfare or working for government.
• There are now just 1.65 employed persons in private sector per 1 person on welfare assistance.
Some 15% of U.S.
Uses Food Stamps. Nearly 15% of the U.S. population relied on food stamps in August, as
the number of recipients hit 45.8 million. Food stamp rolls have risen 8.1% in the past
year, the Department of Agriculture reported, though the pace of growth has slowed from the depths
of the recession.
Study: More Than Half a
Trillion Dollars Spent on Welfare But Poverty Levels Unaffected. The federal government is not making much headway reducing poverty
despite spending hundreds of billions of dollars, according to a study by the libertarian Cato Institute. Despite an unprecedented
increase in federal anti-poverty spending, the national poverty rate has not declined, the study finds.
The American Welfare State. News that the poverty rate has risen to
15.1 percent of Americans, the highest level in nearly a decade, has set off a predictable round of calls for increased government spending
on social welfare programs. Yet this year the federal government will spend more than $668 billion on at least 126 different
programs to fight poverty. And that does not even begin to count welfare spending by state and local governments, which adds $284 billion
to that figure. In total, the United States spends nearly $1 trillion every year to fight poverty. That amounts to $20,610 for
every poor person in America, or $61,830 per poor family of three.
America's
Ever Expanding Welfare Empire. There are 184 additional federal, means-tested welfare programs, most
jointly financed and administered with the states. In addition to Medicaid is the Children's Health Insurance Program
(CHIP). Also included is Food Stamps, now officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Nearly 42 million Americans were receiving food stamps in 2010, up by a third since November, 2008. That is why
President Obama's budget projects spending $75 billion on Food Stamps in 2011, double the $36 billion spent
in 2008. But that is not the only federal nutrition program for the needy. There is the Special Supplemental
Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), which targets assistance to pregnant women and mothers with
small children. There is the means tested School Breakfast Program and School Lunch Program. There is the
Summer Food Service Program for Children. There are the lower income components of the Child and Adult Care Food
Program, the Emergency Food Assistance Program, and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP). Then there is
the Nutrition Program for the Elderly. All in all, literally cradle to grave service.
Welfare Spendathon.
Even without the extra spending in the stimulus bill, means-tested welfare spending is already at a
historic high and growing rapidly. In 2008, federal, state, and local means-tested spending hit
$679 billion per year. Without any legislative expansions, given historic rates of growth in
welfare programs, federal, state, and local means-tested welfare spending over the next decade will
total $8.97 trillion. The House stimulus bill adds another $787 billion to this total,
yielding a 10-year total of $9.8 trillion.
In a
Welfare State, How Much Is 'Enough'? California is imploding. Public-sector unions there,
and across the country, are swallowing budgets. In California alone, pension costs have gone up 2,000 percent
in a decade. At the national level, Obamacare has done little to fix — and much to hurt —
America's long-term entitlement mess. Already, America's structural deficit has tripled since 2007.
Economist Price Fishback has just published a paper finding that America spends more on social welfare than
socialist Sweden (though we spend it differently).
America's
Ever Expanding Welfare Empire. America's welfare state is not a principality. It is a vast
empire bigger than the entire budgets of almost every other country in the world. Just one program,
Medicaid, cost the federal government $275 billion in 2010, which is slated to rise to $451 billion
by 2018. Counting state Medicaid expenditures, this one program cost taxpayers $425 billion in
2010, soaring to $800 billion by 2018. Under Obamacare, 85 million Americans will soon be
on Medicaid, growing to nearly 100 million by 2021, according to the CBO.
More
than 40m now use food stamps . The number of Americans receiving food stamps in March topped
40 million for the first time as the jobless rate hovered near a 26-year high. Recipients of
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program subsidies for food purchases totaled 40.2 million, up
21 percent from a year earlier and 1.2 percent more than in February, the Department of Agriculture
said yesterday [6/2/2010] in a statement on its website. The number of recipients has set records for
16 straight months.
Food-stamp tally nears 40 million, sets
record. The Agriculture Department said 39.68 million people, or 1 in 8 Americans,
were enrolled for food stamps during February, an increase of 260,000 from January. USDA updated its
figures on Wednesday [5/5/2010].
Illinois' bad joke:
The state is three months behind in paying its suppliers and by spring it could be five months behind. Keep this up
and the state might bankrupt the businesses it needs for products and services. If you were a doctor or a hospital,
how long would you continue to give away your services under these conditions? About 2.2 million
people — 17 percent of the state's population — rely on Medicaid. Most are children, low-income adults
and low-income pregnant women. But the elderly, disabled and blind consume the greatest proportion of aid.
U.S.
Spending on Food Stamps at All-Time High. The U.S. is now spending more on food assistance than
at any time in its history, sparking a debate over whether the roughly 40 million people now receiving
the latest version of food stamps at a cost of $73 billion a year are a symptom of a weak economy or are
part of a long-term expansion in welfare and related programs.
Obstacle to Deficit
Cutting: A Nation on Entitlements. Efforts to tame America's ballooning budget deficit
could soon confront a daunting reality: Nearly half of all Americans live in a household in which
someone receives government benefits, more than at any time in history. At the same time, the fraction
of American households not paying federal income taxes has also grown — to an estimated 45% in 2010,
from 39% five years ago, according to the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan research organization.
America's Food Stamp Culture.
[Scroll down] Nationwide, 6 percent of food stamp benefits are spent on sugary beverages, according
to the United States Department of Agriculture, which administers the food stamp program. The [New York
City Mayor Michael Bloomberg]'s tough-love approach to New Yorkers on the food stamp dole comes as a record
41.8 million Americans — including the children of illegal immigrants — are getting
monthly food stamp benefits. The average payout: $133.36 per person. News accounts about
record levels of food stamp use invariably note that the jobless rate is at a 27-year high — yet
curiously, food-stamp use has been in an upward spiral for years, with more than a few Americans becoming
permanent users of the program, a fact that underscores the dangers of dependence.
Welfare State: Handouts Make Up One-Third of U.S. Wages.
Government payouts — including Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance —
make up more than a third of total wages and salaries of the U.S. population, a record figure that will
only increase if action isn't taken before the majority of Baby Boomers enter retirement.
Tax
Day And The Future Tyranny Of The Non-Taxed. Ah, April 15th! I want you to
consider that the date means absolutely nothing to 47% of US households as they will pay zero in federal
income tax. Yes, state, property and sin taxes still get them, but we are seeing a disturbing trend
towards a tipping point where fewer than half of us pay any sort of income tax.
The Food-Stamp
Crime Wave. The Obama administration is far more enthusiastic about boosting food-stamp enrollment
than about preventing fraud. Thanks in part to vigorous federally funded campaigns by nonprofit groups,
the government's AmericaCorps service program, and other organizations urging people to accept government
handouts, the number of food-stamp recipients has soared to 44 million from 26 million in 2007, and
costs have more than doubled to $77 billion from $33 billion.
For First Time Since 1936...
Government
Handouts Top Tax Income. For the first time since the Great Depression, households are receiving
more income from the government than they are paying the government in taxes. The combination of more
cash from various programs, called transfer payments, and lower taxes has been a double-barreled boost to
consumers' buying power, while also blowing a hole in the deficit. The 1930s offer a cautionary tale:
The only other time government income support exceeded taxes paid was from 1931 to 1936. That trend reversed
in 1936, after a recovery was underway, and the economy fell back into a second leg of recession during 1937
and 1938.
10 States With Soaring Poverty Rates.
The poverty line is $10,830 per year, before taxes. That single threshold remains the same for every
American, whether he lives in Mobile, Alabama or the west shore of Maui in the Census Bureau's methodology.
To put it bluntly, that amount of money can go a lot further in Mobile than in Maui. Where would you rather
live with that lump sum, in Mobile, where a gallon of gas goes for $2.50 or in Maui, where it goes for $3.75?
What
Do Liberals Have To Show For 50 Years Of Horrible Policies? [Scroll down] When President Lyndon
Johnson launched his "War on Poverty," the poverty rate was trending down. When he offered money and benefits
to unmarried women, the rate started flat-lining. Women married the government, allowing men to abandon their
moral and financial responsibilities. The percentage of children born outside of marriage — to young,
disproportionately uneducated and disproportionately brown and black women — exploded.
Obama's HHS
Is Bigger Than LBJ's Government. Anyone who doubts that the trend toward socialism is pushing
America toward ruin should examine the historical tables President Obama published Monday along with his
$3.7 trillion budget. In fiscal 2011, according to these tables, the Department of Health and
Human Services will spend $909.7 billion. In fiscal 1965, the entire federal government spent
$118.228 billion. What about inflation? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics'
inflation calculator, $118.228 billion in 1965 dollars equals $822.6 billion in 2010 dollars.
In real terms, the $909.7 billion HHS is spending this year is about $87.1 billion more than the
entire federal government spent in 1965.
Go west,
but not too far west, to find self-reliance. The graph [in this article] was plotted by Cato
Institute's Dan Mitchell from data assembled by the Center for Immigration Studies. The horizontal axis
represents the percentage of non-poor residents of each state signed up for government assistance —
in other words, income redistribution programs. Mitchell calls the measure the Moocher Index. ... Allow me
to provide a few observations to assist you in seeing some staggering messages.
[#1] 6 of the top 10 (in fact, 4 of the top 5) states with the most moochers are in the Northeast.
[#2] 11 of the top 30 mooching states are on the East Coast.
[#3] Fully half of the top 20 mooching states are on either the East of West Coasts.
[#4] Half of the ten states with the lowest percentage of moochers are in the West, but not
the West Coast.
Census:
US poverty rate swells to nearly 1 in 6. The ranks of America's poor swelled to almost
1 in 6 people last year, reaching a new high as long-term unemployment left millions of
Americans struggling and out of work.
Expanding
the Failed War on Poverty. It is clear that President Obama is intent on not only continuing
the failed war on poverty but expanding and growing the size of the welfare state. President Obama's
2011 budget will increase spending on welfare programs by 42 percent over President Bush's last year in
office. Total spending on the welfare state (including state spending) will rise to $953 billion
in 2011.
American
reliance on government at all-time high. Without record levels of welfare, unemployment and other
government benefits as well as tax cuts last year, the income of U.S. households would have plunged by an
astonishing $723 billion — more than four times the record $167 billion drop reported last
month by the Commerce Department. Moreover, for the first time since the Great Depression, Americans took
more aid from the government than they paid in taxes.
Obama
to Spend $10.3 Trillion on Welfare. In his first two years in office, President Barack Obama will
increase annual federal welfare spending by one-third from $522 billion to $697 billion. The
combined two-year increase will equal almost $263 billion ($88.2 billion in FY 2009 plus
$174.6 billion in FY 2010). After adjusting for inflation, this increase is two and a half
times greater than any previous increase in federal welfare spending in U.S. history.
Obama to Spend $10.3 Trillion on Welfare.
Since the beginning of the War on Poverty, government has spent vast sums on welfare or aid to the poor;
however, the aggregate cost of this assistance is largely unknown because the spending is fragmented into
myriad programs. ... According to President Obama's budget projections, federal and state welfare spending
will total $10.3 trillion over the next 10 years (FY 2009 to FY 2018). This spending
will equal $250,000 for each person currently living in poverty in the U.S., or $1 million for a poor
family of four.
The
War on Liberal Contradictions. If one wants more government, the quickest way to
such an end is to create a "crisis" that only government can solve. After all, there is
no way that we can fight obesity and hunger without the government, right? Evidently not,
because, again according to the ABC report, "a shocking 49 percent of all babies born in
the U.S. are born to families receiving food supplements from the WIC program," which is
operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To qualify for WIC, women, or families,
with children under 5 must have a household income that is less than 185% of the federal
poverty guidelines. Why not 175% or 150%? What government bean-counter decided
that 185% was the magic number?
Food stamp use rises to
record 45.8 million. Nearly 15% of the U.S. population relied on food stamps in May, according
to the United States Department of Agriculture. The number of Americans using the government's Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP) — more commonly referred to as food stamps — shot to an all-time high
of 45.8 million in May, the USDA reported. That's up 12% from a year ago, and 34% higher than two
years ago.
America Becomes a Two-Class Society.
Income tax day, April 15, 2010, now divides Americans into two almost equal classes: those who pay
for the services provided by government and those who don't. The percentage of Americans who will pay no
federal income taxes at all for 2009 has risen to 47%. That isn't the worst of it. The bottom
40% not only pay no income tax, but the government sends them cash or benefits financed by the taxes dutifully
paid by those who do pay income tax.
Asians
buck the trend as poverty rises in US. According to a Census Bureau report issued
Tuesday [9/13/2011], 46.2 million Americans, nearly one in six, were living in poverty in 2010,
up from 43.6 million in 2009, representing the largest number of Americans in poverty in the
52 years. In the case of Asians poverty levels remained at 12.1 percent.
Poverty among Hispanics increased to 26.6 percent; among blacks it rose to 27.4 percent;
among whites it climbed to 9.9 percent.
Obama's
poverty problem. America is a poorer country under President Obama. Since
last year, the ranks of America's least well off grew by 2.5 million, according to the
government definition of poverty, which includes a family with income of less than $22,314 a
year or an individual making less than $11,139. One-sixth of the country, 46.2 million,
met this standard, according to figures released Tuesday. That's the highest total since
the Census Bureau began keeping track a half-century ago.
Expanding
Federal Food Programs: Means-Tested Aid for Families with Children. It is misleading to
examine a few nutrition programs in isolation as if no other aid were given to low-income children.
This is particularly important since financial resources are fungible within each household. ... The federal
government operates 71 different means-tested aid programs, providing cash, food, housing, medical care,
and social services to poor and low-income families. In FY 2011, government will spend around
$475 billion on means-tested aid for families with children. This amounts to over $30,000 for
each low-income family with children.
SCHIP: No Child
Left Off Welfare. Originally budgeted at $40 billion over 10 years, the program is on
track to be reauthorized at almost triple the cost — topping $58 billion over the next five
years. And that would be only a down payment, if some in Congress prevail. Currently, SCHIP
eligibility is targeted to help only those households at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty
line. That's a $40,000 annual income for a family of four. One bill now under consideration would
double that cap — to 400 percent of poverty. If approved, Uncle Sam would start paying
the medical bills for kids whose folks earn as much as $82,600 a year (or more, for families larger than four).
Obama's Economic
Record: The Worst Since Hoover. The home ownership rate is the lowest since 1965. The
number of people in the U.S. who are in poverty has seen a record increase on President Obama's watch, with
the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty. And
government dependency, defined as the percentage of persons receiving one or more federal benefit payments,
is the highest in American history.
Record number in
government anti-poverty programs. Government anti-poverty programs that have grown to meet the
needs of recession victims now serve a record one in six Americans and are continuing to expand. More
than 50 million Americans are on Medicaid, the federal-state program aimed principally at the poor, a
survey of state data by USA TODAY shows.
Food
stamp use hit record 40.8 million in May. The number of Americans who are receiving food stamps
rose to a record 40.8 million in May as the jobless rate hovered near a 27-year high, the government
reported yesterday [8/4/2010].
The Ballooning Welfare State.
According to USA Today, government anti-poverty programs serve a record one in six Americans, and that number is
expected to rise as programs increase. For example, the article reports that more than 50 million
Americans are on Medicaid, more than 40 million receive food stamps, close to 10 million receive
unemployment insurance, and more than 4.4 million remain on welfare.
Does America Deserve Obama? Since the
inception of Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society," we have had at least forty years of welfare
programs designed to reduce poverty. These programs have not worked. The current U.S.
poverty rate is the same as it was in the late 1960s. So what do we do about it?
Instead of reversing course, we continue on the same path.
Americans
'Hooked' on Government Benefits. A record 49 percent of Americans live in a household where
someone receives at least one type of government benefit, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And 63 percent
of all federal spending this year will consist of checks written to individuals for which the government receives currently
no services, the White House budget office estimates. That's up from 46 percent in 1975
and 18 percent in 1940.
Income
Inequality Myths Of Left Exposed Once Again. Among the neglected or ignored factors [Diana Furchtgott-Roth] addresses are the role
food stamps, Medicaid and housing allowances play in the statistics; the increase in both high-income two-earner households
and low-income one-person households; and more small businesses shifting from corporate to individual tax schedules since the
1986 tax reform. For instance, a higher percentage of low-income Americans — 26% in the poorest fifth of households
and 31% in the second-lowest fifth — actually own their homes free and clear of mortgage debt than upper-income taxpayers.
Not One Penny More For America's Welfare
State. Here's the scorecard. Spending on national defense, adjusted for inflation and population,
was 42% higher in 2008 than in 1965, while housekeeping outlays were 76% higher. Both, in other words, grew
far less rapidly than the economy or federal revenues — both of which were about 150% higher in
2008 than in 1965. But welfare-state expenditures were
583% higher. In fact, the welfare state became
the core of the federal government, growing from 26% of federal outlays in 1965 to 61% in 2008. For
years, the Democratic Party's raison d'etre has been to establish, defend and expand the welfare state.
49.5%
of Americans Pay No Federal Income Tax. The number of Americans on food stamps has risen to a record
45.8 million. The previous record was 31 million in 2009. Likewise, the number of people using
free government-provided cell phones has shot up exponentially. In 2008, the free cell phone program cost
tax-payers $772 million, and in 2011 it cost $1.6 billion. (Those free cell phones are expensive.)
Free school breakfasts and lunches have been complimented with free school dinners under Obama, and programs to provide meals
to kids during the summer have even been added. Moreover, jobless benefits have been extended to 99 weeks under
Obama, and thanks to his new HHS mandate, contraception will now be free for nearly everyone as well.
Did
someone mention school lunches?
1
In 6 Floridians Now Depend On Food Stamps. Knowing government overlords and their cronies like the
National Association of Realtors religiously double-count to disguise our nation's true unemployment rates, home
sales figures, health care costs, national debt and the like, rest assured '1 in 6' Floridians on
food stamps — when using government math — represents half of the actual statistic.
The takers
weigh down the makers. Here's a question of vastly more than theoretical importance to current and
coming generations of Americans: How much longer can the U.S. economy continue to produce enough wealth to
sustain a growing class of people who depend on government for some or all of their daily necessities? To
pose the question another way: Are we nearing a point when there are no longer enough taxpayers to support
all of the tax consumers in America?
ObamaCare and
American Power: The United States currently spends roughly as much on defense ($661 billion
in fiscal year 2009) as the rest of the world combined. But that's a pittance compared to what we spend
on three major entitlement programs — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Obama Will Spend More on Welfare
in the Next Year Than Bush Spent on Entire Iraq War. As a candidate for president, Barack Obama
decried the financial toll that the Iraq war was taking on the economy, but Obama's proposed spending on welfare
through 2010 will eclipse Bush's war spending by more than $260 billion.
Welfare
Reform after Ten Years: A State-by-State Analysis. In an age when "reform" seems a tired slogan
that seldom delivers what it promises, why did welfare reform apparently work so well? PRWORA replaced Aid to
Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), a national entitlement program, with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF), a collection of block grants for the states. As a result, states gained greater flexibility in
implementing reform: They could implement time limits, work requirements, and family cap restrictions
to encourage self-sufficiency.
Welfare
in a Bad Way. What most Americans identify as government "welfare" are payments to single mothers,
food stamps and (perhaps) Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor. But that's
not the half of it. Since 1960, government has changed radically. Then, 52 percent of federal
spending went for defense, 26 percent for "payments for individuals" — the welfare state.
By 2008, 61 percent consisted of "payments for individuals," 21 percent for defense. Social
Security and Medicare — programs for the elderly — represented the biggest share:
$1 trillion in 2008.
U.S. Poverty Rate Rises to 11-Year High as
Recession Takes Toll. The U.S. poverty rate rose to the highest level in 11 years in 2008 and household
incomes declined as the first full year of the recession took its toll, government data showed. The poverty rate
climbed to 13.2 percent from 12.5 percent, and the number of people classified as poor jumped by 2.6 million
to 39.8 million, according to a Census Bureau report released today [9/10/2009].
Manufactured Healthcare Crisis.
Medicaid is funded roughly 50/50 by federal and state governments. As an essentially free benefit to the poor,
Medicaid has no tax associated with it, so it is covered by state and federal income tax revenues — that's
you and me... In 2006, Medicaid spending alone totaled $314 billion. For perspective, this
is roughly equivalent to the baseline defense budget (i.e. excluding war spending like for Iraq/Afghanistan).
State Medicaid programs are the largest single recipient of all federal grants, comprising 43 percent of the
total. In 2008, federal Medicaid and Medicare spending totaled $676 billion. Comprising only
2 percent of the federal budget in 1967, these two programs today consume 23 percent of total federal
spending. This is the largest component of the federal budget, even exceeding total wartime outlays for
national defense.
Welfare Reform after Ten Years: A State-by-State
Analysis. On August 22, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA). ... In the simplest of terms, PRWORA sought to promote work and marriage and
discourage births to teenagers and unmarried women. Most policy experts, liberal and conservative, agree welfare
reform produced extraordinary results. Welfare rolls dropped from 12.2 million in August 1996 to 4.1 million
in December 2006, a national decline of 67 percent. Studies show most former recipients left for work, proving
wrong the predictions asserting homelessness would increase dramatically. Other key measures, such as employment of
never-married mothers, grew by 50 percent. Employment changes of this magnitude over such a short period for an
entire demographic group are unprecedented in Census Bureau records.
One
in 10 Americans gets help to buy food. A record 32.2 million people — one in every
10 Americans — received food stamps at the latest count, the government said on Thursday [4/2/2009], a
reflection of the recession now in its 16th month. Food stamps, the major U.S. anti-hunger program, help
poor people buy groceries. The average benefit was $112.82 per person in January.
Atlas shrugs, moves to
Massachusetts. Today's Wall Street Journal has an article on a drive to increase unemployment compensation
benefits for New Yorkers. The poor babies only get a maximum of $405 per week, whereas those in Massachusetts
get $942. Those fat cats get benfits which work out to be $48,048 on an annual basis. The U S Census
put median family income for all American families in 2006 at $49,207.
Low-Tax States Cut Poverty Rates: Study.
Fiscally prudent states appear to be winning the war on poverty, according to a recent study by the Goldwater
Institute, which found low-tax and low-spending states are more successful at reducing poverty than their
high-tax, high-spending counterparts. The 10 states with the lowest tax burdens saw a 13.7 percent
decline in poverty during the 1990s (more than double the national average), according to the study.
Meanwhile, the 10 states with the highest tax burdens suffered an average poverty rate increase of
3 percent. The poverty rate dropped nationwide during the decade, the report notes.
Politicians use handouts to buy votes
Welfare programs are permanent, because politicians want to stay in their offices permanently. The recipients of
unmerited payments from the government should not be allowed to vote, in my opinion, because they will obviously vote
to keep the checks coming. Exactly the wrong strategy is in place: Government agencies actually
encourage
people to register to vote when they sign up for welfare programs. That's because the bureaucrats and pencil-pushers
like the system the way it is, just like the politicians. Is there any way to break this cycle? Yes, there is.
The idea is called
term limits.
Biden's
Student Loan 'Forgiveness' Wack-A-Mole, v. 4.0. Past is prologue when it comes to the
student loan policy of progressive grandees. Hoping to hear an adoring public applaud one
last time, the Biden-Harris administration released a fourth round of rules canceling student loan
debt on Oct. 25. First came the mammoth $430 billion plan birthed before the '22
midterms that made the student loans of 40 million borrowers eligible for cancellation.
That died the following spring at the Supreme Court only to be succeeded by the "Saving on a
Valuable Education" plan, which drastically reduced the income borrowers must contribute toward
repaying their loans at an estimated 10-year cost of $475 billion.
Identify as black, and never pay it back.
Kamala's
Last-Ditch Pitch To Black Men Is A Dream For Scammers, Fraudsters. Vice President
Kamala Harris's plan to offer $20,000 in forgivable loans to minority entrepreneurs is a golden
opportunity for scammers and fraudsters, experts told the Daily Caller. [...] The loans would be in
partnership with the Small Business Administration (SBA), which also oversaw the administration of
the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a COVID-era program meant to give small businesses resources
"to maintain their payroll, hire back employees who may have been laid off, and cover applicable
overhead." That program, however, was the target of a sprawling fraud scheme which was "the
single largest transfer of money to criminal groups in our history," Haywood Talcove, the CEO of
LexisNexis Risk Solutions Government, told the Daily Caller. The rate of fraud under
COVID-era payment plans like PPP was "conservatively 20 percent" and "probably closer to
35 percent," Talcove told the Caller.
The Editor says...
If anyone can "identify" as black, anyone can get a $20,000 "forgivable loan" and spend the money.
But free stuff isn't free: the taxpayers pay for it. If the government just prints money and
gives it away, the rest of us pay for it through inflation.
Biden
Announces Cancellation Of $4.5B In Student Debt For 60,000 Public Service Workers.
The Biden administration just announced the approval of cancellation of $4.5 billion in
student debt for 60,000 public service workers. The Thursday announcement revealed that "over
60,000 public service workers" would be receiving debt forgiveness, which brings the total of
Americans who have had their debt canceled under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program
to over a million. Meanwhile, American taxpayers and a large majority of other former college
students whose debts haven't been cancelled have expressed frustration in regards to how their
hard-earned money would go to supporting those who were seemingly picked at random and absolved of
the responsibility.
Harris
plans to legalize recreational marijuana and create 'forgivable' loans in bid to get black men out
to vote. Kamala Harris has launched a series of measures to shore up the votes of
black men amid fears they may not turn out for her on Election Day. It comes as polls showed
her level of support among black men lower than that of Joe Biden in 2020 and Hillary Clinton in
2016. A New York Times poll last week showed 70 percent of black male voters backing
Harris, and 20 percent Donald Trump. Harris' figure was significantly down from the
85 percent who backed Joe Biden in 2020. In a stark intervention last week Barack Obama
urged black men to vote for the Democratic nominee.
This
Is Kamala's Plan on How to Win Back Black Men. Last week former President Barack
Obama sounded the alarm about losing the 2024 election against former president Donald Trump and
berated black voters, specifically men, for failing to support Vice President Kamala Harris' bid
for the White House. [Tweet] The Democratic Party is panicking and today, Harris released
a new agenda specifically targeted for black male voters. It includes the following:
["]
[#1] Providing 1 million loans that are fully forgivable to Black
entrepreneurs and others to start a business.
[#2] Championing education, training, and mentorship programs that help Black men get
good-paying jobs in high-demand industries and lead their communities, including pathways to become teachers.
[#3] Supporting a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency and other digital assets so
Black men who invest in and own these assets are protected.
[#4] Launching a National Health Equity Initiative focused on Black Men [...]
[#5] Legalizing recreational marijuana and creating opportunities for Black Americans
to succeed in this new industry.
["]
The Editor says...
[#1] Providing taxpayer-funded benefits exclusively to black men is not the proper role of government,
to say the least. It is reverse discrimination. [#2] A "fully forgivable" loan is just a
handout. Calling it a loan doesn't fool anybody. [#3] Subsidizing recreational marijuana
will not benefit this country in any way. There is already far too much recreation going on,
and not enough work. Encouraging the use of marijuana is just a way to make the black men more docile.
[#4] We're not living in 1949. Black men already have opportunities to succeed, start a business,
or invest in Bitcoin, just like anybody else.
Next-Level
Vote-Buying: Harris Promises Black Men $20k 'Forgivable Loans'. On track to
post Democrats' worst presidential-election performance with blacks in 64 years, a desperate
Kamala Harris smashed the vote-buying button on Monday, proposing an "Opportunity Agenda" for black
men that includes dishing out one million "forgivable loans" at $20,000 each. The loans would
be offered to black entrepreneurs "in partnership with trusted organizations like mission-driven
lenders and banks with a proven commitment to their communities," the Harris-Walz campaign
said. If these "forgivable loans" are anything like the ones dished out to businesses during
the madness of Covid stimulus, they'll be loans in name only — meaning this is just a
blatant wealth redistribution scheme aimed at buying black votes.
Kamala
Harris's Racially Patronizing Agenda. Kamala Harris's so-called "Opportunity Agenda
for Black Men" is not just misguided — it's the epitome of the soft bigotry of low
expectations. It stands as a stark reminder of why Harris's policies are detrimental not only
for Black Americans but for the very fabric of American society. Her patronizing proposals
reek of a condescending mindset that views Black men as incapable of success without the
omnipresent hand of the government leading them by the nose, their ambitions shackled to the whims
of state bureaucrats. If you want a future where Black men are seen not as individuals, but
as perpetual victims needing special allowances, then Kamala Harris is your candidate. But
for those who believe in equality of opportunity, who trust in the American spirit, Harris's
proposals are nothing short of an insult to both intelligence and integrity.
Kamala
Harris' $500B home care election bribe and her faulty math. Appearing on ABC's "The
View" Tuesday, Kamala Harris proposed "a historic new Medicare at Home benefit" to "cover home care
for the first time." The cost of such a benefit could reach $500 billion per year (almost
$4,000 per American household). But the Harris campaign implausibly claims that it could be
funded merely by cutting Medicare payments for drugs. As people age, they increasingly need
assistance with basic chores like bathing, eating, dressing, or using the bathroom; 40% of
Americans aged 85 and older need such help — and their number is expected to double by
2040. Most of this care is currently provided by relatives. But as seniors are increasingly
divorced, childless, or living far from their kids, the need for formal assistance is growing.
This can be enormously expensive: the median cost of a home health aide is $33 per hour.
Who
Is Going to Vote Democrat? At least 40% of Americans who vote this year are almost
sure to vote for Harris/Walz and other Democrats down ticket. [...] But who is it who votes for
Democrats? [...] [#2] Government dependents. As Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler so poignantly
wrote, "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until
the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that
moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public
treasury." Democrats buy votes. Republicans do, too, but it certainly has been a
foundation of the Democratic Party as far back as Franklin Roosevelt, perhaps the greatest
vote-buyer of all time. It's why the American government is over $34 trillion in debt,
and it won't stop. Listen to Kamala. She has a plethora of projects to buy votes.
The more people are dependent upon the government, the less free they are, and the more they will
continue to vote for the politicians who will keep them enslaved to the government.
The
Woke Plot To Destroy Our Economy. "Woke" people claim that they want to wake up
racial and sexual minorities to the way they are being discriminated against. Because of past
and present exploitation, blacks and other "protected" groups are not getting what rightfully
belongs to them. The solution to this is that the better off, especially if they are white,
should have their wealth and income seized and given to those they are exploiting. The woke
position rests on a fundamental fallacy. This is that there is a fixed amount resources, so
that if the rich have more, the poor have less. But this is wrong. Resources in the
free market are not a fixed sum. So long as the economy is growing, everybody can
benefit. The 'protected' can do better without taking away what the rich have earned.
College
athletes are being offered thousands to endorse Montana senator's re-election bid through NIL
deals. College athletes in Montana are being offered cash to make endorsement videos
for Sen. Jon Tester as he campaigns for one of the Democrats' most vulnerable seats of the
2024 cycle, according to emails shared with Fox News Digital. A group called "Montana
Together" recently sourced athletes at the University of Montana (UMT), offering payments in
exchange for the promotion of Tester, according to the school's athletic director, Kent
Haslam. In July, the initial contact was made on behalf of "Montana Together" through a
representative at Opendorce.com, a platform used as a marketplace for athletes to score Name,
Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals. NIL is a policy approved by the National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA) in 2021 that allows college athletes to monetize their content.
The
Lure of Easy Home Ownership. The Harris/Walz economic agenda might be called "Free
Stuff Socialism" where government taxes the "super-rich" to provide ordinary Americans with "free
stuff," or at least stuff at sharply reduced prices. Obviously, the aim is to secure votes
and, no doubt, many Americans will find these lures convincing. [...] Consider, for example, the
proposal to pay 400,000 first-generations home buyers $25,000 towards their down payment and a
$10,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers. All told, this plan is to help one million
first-time home buyers per year while simultaneously boosting the home construction industry. [...]
What could possibly go wrong? Lots. The law of supply and demand obviously poses a
serious problem: increasing the pool of those trying to buy homes will boost home prices, and
even with government funds in one's pocket, home ownership may still be beyond reach. Perhaps
a Harris administration will then ban builders from "price gouging" as they intend to bar
supermarkets from overcharging shoppers, but this response will fail for the simple reason that, as
in all consumer pricing, who can determine the "real" price of anything?
Democrats
launch new vote-buying scheme, plan to cancel $100 million in medical debt. Not
only do we have student loans in our names that we didn't take out, but now we're fixing to have
medical bills for services never rendered to us. [...] Furthermore, I can't exactly figure out how
the other $99.5 million is supposed to materialize; the Gothamist leaves it at this, with no
additional detail: ["]The administration is utilizing $550,000 in federal funds to wipe
out $100 million worth of medical debt.["] This really doesn't add
up. How is [NJ Gov. Phil] Murphy accomplishing this clean slate? Debt between
patient and facility is a contractual agreement between two-parties, sometimes three with
insurance, so is he canceling contracts? Or, is he using taxpayer funds to pay off the
outstanding debt?
Solicitation of astroturf:
So
the Harris Campaign Is Paying People to Make Kamala Look 'Cool' to GenZ Voters. As
[Kamala] Harris positions herself to be the Democratic 2024 nominee, the campaign has taken a
pivotal shift in its political strategy to boost her votes. Harris' TikTok account, initially
used to make President Joe Biden appear more relatable, is now flush with memes trying to make
Harris seem "cool." CNN commentator Van Jones pointed this out, saying that Harris has gone
from "cringe to cool." In an even more desperate attempt to gain the votes of the younger
generations, social media influencers are reportedly being offered money in exchange for posting
content that makes the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee seem more appealing.
Comedian Steve McGrew shared an email he received from a company called "Launch Viral," offering a
"paid post-collaboration opportunity" to support Harris. The offer includes a "$150 cash paid
bonus incentive." In the email, the company's pitch includes posting a meme from its
pre-approved list to TikTok.
The
Insurrectionist Left. It's a common tactic of the insurrectionist left to demonstrate
their full control of the legal system to demoralize their enemies. But as the left continues
to alienate more and more of the population by forcing transgender surgeries on minors, vaxxing
with a deadly "vaccine" and making it mandatory even while the dangers of it are being more fully
exposed and jailing political opposition, they just accelerate their abuses to the masses by
importing and employing foreigners who have not come to the United States legally. It isn't
so much that Trump has attracted Hispanic and black laborers to his camp as the Democrats have
driven them to him out of desperation. Between increasing prices and wage deflation,
Hispanics and blacks suffer the most, but without the reloadable gift cards the illegals
possess. I understand, as well as many others, that these gift cards will only be functional
until the election, then those funds will evaporate into the air, causing a disruption of the Trump
Administration, or as a pretext to eliminating forever the conservative right.
New
York City expands costly debit card program for illegal aliens. New York City
Democrat Mayor Eric Adams' office recently announced plans to expand its debit card program for
illegal aliens residing in taxpayer-funded shelters. The initial pilot program included 3,000
illegal immigrants, and now the administration is expected to provide another 7,300 individuals
with the pre-loaded cards over the next six months, which will cost New York City taxpayers
$2.6 million. New York City Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne
Williams-Isom claimed that the city's program "empower[s] people" by helping "them achieve
self-sufficiency and access the American dream."
The Editor says...
If you want them to "achieve self-sufficiency," stop handing out freebies.
Even the illegal aliens can see you're just trying to buy their votes.
Ex-Bernie
Sanders Staffer Says Biden Must Cut 'Some Checks' To Sway Black Voters In Swing State.
Former Bernie Sanders staffer Tezlyn Figaro said on Monday that President Joe Biden needs to cut checks
to black Americans if he wants to be victorious in Michigan. Former President Donald Trump is
presently leading Biden in Michigan in a five-way race by .3%, according to the RealClearPolling
average. Figaro on "The Story With Martha MacCallum" said Biden's "only" chance of winning the
state is distributing money he owes to black voters. [Tweet with video clip]
Biden's
All-of-Government Vote Buying Scheme. To bet on the upcoming presidential election,
don't just rely on polls. Look at the billions of taxpayer dollars President Joe Biden is
pouring into "community organizations" in "disadvantaged communities" to tip the election
scales. The community organizer who became president, Barack Obama, was a master at machine
politics, using federal tax dollars to turn community organizations — left-wing
not-for-profits — into a fifth estate. Their staffs, paid using taxpayer money but
not tied to government rules, could hit the streets at election time and build turnout. Biden
has scaled up Obama's playbook, using billions of dollars instead of mere millions.
The
welfare state confiscates wealth from those who create it to buy votes from those who don't.
Ninety to 95% of the welfare department's "clients" are "New Mainers." To translate out of
liberal Euphemese, in the context of the massive ongoing invasion Biden has facilitated, this means
they are overwhelmingly illegal aliens. It can be assumed that Westbrook is no outlier, and
that a similar state of affairs prevails in small towns throughout the country. The situation
in big cities is even worse. The American people are being forced to finance their own conquest and
displacement. Our ancestors would have fought to the last man before submitting to this.
Biden
Admin Cancels $7,700,000,000 in Student Federal Loans. President Joe Biden announced
another round of student loan cancellations. This round totals $7,700,000,000. Writing it out
shows how much money just went down the drain. The administration has already canceled
$167,000,000,000 in student loans. In 2022, the Supreme Court said he overstepped his
authority when he announced he would cancel up to $400,000,000,000 in loans. The
administration found ways to worm around the decision through established "federal student loan
forgiveness programs." These programs limit the action to "specific categories of borrowers."
RFK
Jr Says His First Week In Office He Will Pay Black Farmers 5 Billion Dollars In
Reparations. RFK Jr. says the first week he is in the White House he will pay
$5 billion in reparations to Black farmers: "The 1st week I'm going to get rid of those
people in USDA and get that money, that $5 billion dollars is not money that is an entitlement
it's money that was a loan that black farmers were entitled to way back and was stolen from them
through discrimination." "It was given to every other farmer, but if you were black, you
wouldn't get it, and that's wrong. I don't think anybody who believes in the values of this
country thinks that that's a good idea." "USDA is broken from the top down. It's not
run for small farmers. It's run to benefit Big AG." [Video clip]
Seven
More States Sue to Block 'Most Generous Ever' Student Loan Program. President Joe
Biden faces a fresh lawsuit from a seven-state coalition challenging his "most generous ever"
federal student loan repayment plan, under which millions of borrowers would have a monthly bill of
$0. In their complaint, filed on April 8 at a federal court in Missouri, the states
argued that what the Biden administration calls the SAVE plan is another unlawful attempt to force
Americans who incurred no college debt to shoulder the bill for those who did. "Just last
year, the [U.S.] Supreme Court struck down an attempt by the President to force teachers, truckers,
and farmers to pay for the student loan debt of other Americans — to the enormous tune
of $430 billion," the complaint stated, noting that the high court's 6-3 majority explicitly
ruled that the president should not bypass Congress to implement a decision with such profound
impact on the country's economy.
Texas
AG Ken Paxton sues Harris County over pilot guaranteed income program. Texas Attorney
General Ken Paxton is suing Harris County for its guaranteed income program designed to help
eligible families in 10 targeted ZIP codes. Paxton made the announcement Tuesday morning
calling the program "unlawful." He said it "redistributes public money in a manner that
violates the Texas Constitution." Uplift Harris is the county's first guaranteed income
program and provides eligible households with $500 a month for 18 months. [...] Uplift Harris
is funded with $20.5 million from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which was
passed to help struggling Americans recover after the pandemic caused an economic crisis.
County leaders said they're worried the program will be derailed just weeks before checks were
going to start going out.
Biden's
Signature Bills Showering Battleground States With Billions Of Taxpayer Dollars, With More To
Come. Two of President Joe Biden's flagship laws are pumping billions of dollars of
taxpayer cash into states that will likely decide the winner of November's presidential election,
with much more money still up for grabs. The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure package and the
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Biden's massive climate bill, have routed more than $60 billion
combined to Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia,
according to White House data. These states are widely considered to be the seven key swing
states that will dictate whether Biden will secure a second term or if former President Donald
Trump will return to the White House. The funds that have been distributed from the two bills
to date amount to approximately half of the total amount of money that the two bills have to offer,
according to Axios.
NY
Gov. Kathy Hochul Dumping $2.4 Billion Into Migrant Care, Pushing State-Funded Housing
Construction. New York Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed $2.4 billion
in spending for migrants in her latest budget proposal, along with plans to spur residential
development in a state with some of the highest rent and home prices in the country. Hochul
released her budget proposal on Tuesday [3/26/2024] to address the pressures facing the Empire
State, one of which is Joe Biden's continuing migrant crisis. The Democrat suggested an
additional $2.4 billion for migrant care in addition to the $1.9 billion the state spent
in 2023, according to Politico. A large portion of the new spending is targeted for New York
City. Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams apparently agreed to spend $1.1 billion for the
illegal border crossers that have flocked to the Big Apple.
The Editor says...
Some of them "flocked to the Big Apple," and some of them were dumped in the Big Apple after they invaded Texas.
Majority
Of Biden's $136 Billion Student Loan Forgiveness Scheme Going To "Public Servants".
President Joe Biden is heaping another $5 billion onto a $136 billion pile of taxpayer-funded
student loan debt forgiveness, as one of his signature 2024 (vote buying) schemes heading into the 2024
election. Not only has moral hazard been reduced to an academic concept, shouldn't taxpayer funds
be used to bail out poverty-stricken Americans before people with college degrees who signed their names
to a contract for non-dischargeable debt? We digress. Around 74,000 student loan borrowers
will now see debt canceled as a result of administrative changes enacted by the US Department of Education
in the latest round of relief[,] including borrowers enrolled in the government's income-driven
repayment and public service loan forgiveness programs, Bloomberg reports.
Biden
bails out 74K student loan borrowers with $5B in canceled debt. The Biden
administration has approved an additional $5 billion in debt cancelation for roughly 74,000
student loan borrowers, the White House said Friday in a statement. President Biden said many
of the borrowers impacted by his latest student loan debt handout are public sector workers, like
teachers and firefighters, who will have their debt erased after 10 years of public
service. Nearly 30,000 borrowers impacted have been in repayment for at least 20 years
"but never got the relief they earned through income-driven repayment plans," Biden said. The
latest round of student debt cancelation brings the total amount canceled under Biden to
$136.6 billion for more than 3.7 million Americans, according to the Department of
Education. It comes after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked Biden's initial student loan handout
last year, which would have cost more than $400 billion.
Colorado
Considers $3,000 Payments to Criminals. It pays to belong to an identity group
favored by Democrats. Consider criminals in Colorado: ["]Democrats in the Colorado
legislature have proposed a concerning new bill that aims to incentivize crime in the Centennial
State. Under this bill, criminals would receive a cash payment of $3,000 upon their release
from a Colorado prison.["] The ostensible purpose of paying people to be criminals
through Senate Bill 12 is to prevent recidivism. Were this an actual objective, authorities
might consider making recreational drugs less accessible. [...] The actual purpose is to reward a
group that has been loyal in its support. If a criminal is going to vote, who else would he
vote for if not the party of colleague Joe Biden?
Report:
Blue States [are] Automatically Registering Welfare Recipients to Vote. Several blue states
across the United States are automatically registering hundreds of thousands of residents to vote
each year whenever they interact with state agencies, including welfare offices, a report from
journalist John Fund details. The report, issued by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity,
documents the Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) policy now imposed by 23 states and the District
of Columbia. All but three of these states are blue states controlled by Democrats.
The Editor says...
Welfare recipients should never vote. Nor should violent felons, illegal aliens, or patients
in a mental hospital. In the good old days, all that was just common sense.
Ex-GOP
Governor Blasts Biden's Student Loan Bailout As 'Biggest Vote-Buying Scheme Ever Undertaken'.
Former New Hampshire Republican Governor Judd Gregg slammed President Joe Biden this week for allegedly
trying to "buy votes" through his student loan bailout program. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3
last week that Biden's attempt to use the HEROES Act to unilaterally forgive federally subsidized student
loans was illegal. Gregg responded to the ruling during an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday,
calling Biden's plan "the biggest vote-buying scheme ever received or undertaken by a presidency, is all
it was." "Forty million people get 20,000 bucks," he said. "I'll vote for you to give me
20,000 bucks. And that's what it is about. That's what it's still about. That's why
they're trying to reform it so they can keep this idea that they're going to give this huge tax break,
this income to all these folks going into the next election."
Project
Veritas Reveals Biden's 'Unannounced Plan B' to Work Around Supreme Court Ruling on Student Loan
Bailout. Project Veritas on Friday released an undercover video revealing Joe Biden's
unannounced "Plan B" to work around the Supreme Court's ruling on his student loan bailout
program. The US Supreme Court on Friday crushed Joe Biden's student loan bailout program.
Joe Biden unilaterally announced a massive forgiveness of student loans last August to buy the
Gen Z-Millennial vote in the 2022 midterms. Biden canceled over $400 billion in
student loans which turned out to be up to $10,000 in student debt for borrowers who earn $125,000
a year or less and up to $20,000 for recipients of Pell Grants.
Workarounds
to working. [Scroll down] Living off of family money, unemployment
insurance, disability insurance, government grants, friends, subsidized homelessness, becoming a
perpetual student, and/or working off the books all come together to allow an unprecedented number
of people to fail to contribute to the continuing success and financing of our country. There
is a monthly government statistic called U-6 and another metric called Civilian Labor Force
Participation Rate. These two stats, added to the official Unemployment rate, reveal another
estimated 12 million unemployed or underemployed individuals over and above the official
stats. Another important metric is people who could work but choose not to do so.
Yes, the government keeps that number as well. When you combine all these numbers, you
approach 100 million people who don't work for a variety of reasons. That number has
risen by about 35 million in the last ten years.
Right
After Biden Successfully Buys Votes With Student Loan Bailout, Supreme Court Will Weigh In. The Supreme
Court will decide whether the Biden administration acted lawlessly when it authorized the cancellation of hundreds of
billions of dollars in student loans. The high court announced on Thursday that it would expedite an appeal
brought by the Biden administration challenging a lower court's injunction freezing its loan "forgiveness" program,
promising a hearing in February on the issues. Until then, the Supreme Court will let stand the injunction the
Eighth Circuit issued in Nebraska v. Biden. That injunction prevents the Biden administration from
cancelling student loans of up to $20,000 per borrower, pending resolution of the legal challenge to the
debt-forgiveness plan brought by six states: Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Carolina.
Keywords: Buying votes, money laundering, slush fund, graft.
Oakland Will
Send Taxpayer Dollars To Residents So They Can Donate To Politicians. Oakland, California, is set to give
adult residents vouchers to donate to candidates for local office every other year, according to The San Francisco
Chronicle. Nearly 74% of the city's voters approved Measure W, mandating that the city biannually send four
$25 dollar vouchers to residents 18 years of age and older for donations to mayoral, City Council or school board
candidates, the outlet reported. The program will be paid for with city general funds and include legal permanent
residents who lack U.S. citizenship.
Biden
Extends Student Loan Pause Again After Declaring 'Pandemic Is Over'. President Joe Biden reportedly plans
to extend the pause on federal student loan payments through the summer of 2023 as his student debt cancellation plan
faces legal challenges. The Department of Education will soon announce the extension of the freeze, according to a
report from CNN. The first payments will be due two months after June 30, unless the Supreme Court
greenlights the administration's debt forgiveness program beforehand. A similar report from Bloomberg quoted
multiple unnamed sources.
The
scary part is that the students fell for it. Some time ago, President Biden announced an executive order
aimed at helping students with college debt, promising $10,000 in debt relief from federal student loans for most and
$20,000 in debt relief from the poorest recipients who qualified for Pell grants. It was "Pandering 101" and
really aimed at getting college students to vote Democrat ahead of the midterms. What else was it? Well, it
worked and the young voted for Uncle Joe and his loan-forgiving ideas. They probably saved the U.S. Senate for the
Democrats and cut losses in the House.
Gravy:
73% of Joe Biden's student loan amnesty recipients plan to spend their windfall on travel, dining out, new tech
-poll. After jeremiad after jeremiad about student loan debt crushing the younger generation, with the
media touting drama and womyn's studies majors being unable to get highly paid jobs, it turns out the situation doesn't
seem to have been so bad after all: [...] As for whether this is the best use of federal money — or another
inflation additive, most people know the answer to that. The problem with Biden's debt amnesty is that it's a
one-size fits all solution. There are some borrowers who got in over their heads and took on college majors that
don't pay enough to recover them — the $300 a month forgivenesss for them actually isn't going to help
much. Others, who scrimped and saved to pay off their debt, get nothing, too. Then there are the vast
majority, the 73%, the coming Apple Watch buyers and airline ticket purchasers, who didn't need the help, the debt
amnesty was just an express ticket to live it up earlier, a great government freebie. For them, it's gravy.
Flailing
Biden goes 'Hugo Chavez' with free heating oil handouts just as midterms approach. [Scroll down]
Handing out free heating oil is a cheap Band-aid solution and won't do a thing to fix inflation, which is what the
claimed purpose is. Biden's federal spending on this all of his claimed inflation-alleviation handouts, in fact,
will make inflation worse, because free stuff always raises demand for such free stuff. Apply that to fixed
resources and the price goes up — with the result inflation.
Less than a week before the mid-term election:
Harris
to announce $13B from Democratic bill for home energy upgrades. Vice President Kamala Harris will travel
to Boston on Wednesday to announce more than $13 billion in new federal programs and funds to help lower energy costs
for households this winter. The $13 billion, provided through the Inflation Reduction Act, will fund a grab
bag of energy efficiency, home, and electrification upgrades to help people "weatherize" their homes for winter and
assist low-income families with heating costs.
Los
Angeles and L.A. County buy into guaranteed income movement. Following a national trend, Los Angeles and
Los Angeles County have embraced the popular guaranteed income concept to combat poverty by offering low-income
residents no-strings-attached money. The city of Los Angeles offers a guaranteed income program to 3,200
participants chosen at random to receive $1,000 per month for 12 months. Los Angeles County has responded with two
guaranteed programs of its own. The county's pilot guaranteed income program involves 1,000 participants who will
receive $1,000 monthly payments for three years. The budget is $16.3 million, and the county will use federal
COVID-19 relief money to pay for the program, according to Los Angeles County. The program began in August.
Biden
Is 'Buying Votes' Ahead of Midterm Elections With Policy Decisions: Rep. Lauren Boebert. As the Nov.
8 midterm election draws near, some see recent moves by President Joe Biden as a desperate means to "buying votes."
[For example,] Pardons for Marijuana Offenses: On Oct. 6, Biden announced a blanket pardon for some federal
marijuana possession convictions. "No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana," Biden said.
"Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that
many states no longer prohibit. Criminal records for marijuana possession have also imposed needless barriers to
employment, housing, and educational opportunities." He went on to say that minorities are disproportionately
targeted by law enforcement for marijuana offenses.
Will
Biden Cancel Medical Debt Next? Nobody has yet come up with a definitive estimate of the full taxpayer
cost of President Joe Biden's student loan bailout, but the numbers are already staggering. And as budget-busting
as this one is, it's only whetted the Left's appetite for more loan bailouts. When the White House announced
Biden's plan, they said the cost of the loan cancelations would cost $240 billion over 10 years. The Congressional
Budget Office just released its estimate and pegged the cost at $400 billion, plus another $20 billion in costs by the
extension of Biden's "emergency" payment suspension through the end of this year — a suspension allegedly in
response to COVID, which Biden himself says is no longer a pandemic. That is close to the estimate from the
Wharton school which put the 10-year cancellation cost between $469 billion and $519 billion. But that's
only a small part of the taxpayers' largesse Biden wants to shower on college students.
Gavin
Newsom to Send 'Inflation Relief Checks' to Californians Right Before [the next] Election. California will
begin sending "inflation relief checks" to residents in October, right before Election Day, as voters are mailing in
their ballots, thanks to a plan launched by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and agreed to earlier this year by the state's
Democrats. As Breitbart News reported, Newsom's plan began as a proposed rebate to help residents afford the high
cost of gasoline, which is more expensive in California than in any other state thanks to taxes and regulations (which
were not reformed). Ultimately, the Democrat-dominated state legislature, which had refused to delay a rise in the
gas tax, agreed to the "inflation relief checks." Coincidentally, they will begin arriving as Newsom, who is up for
reelection, will face the voters' verdict.
One-Time
$1,000 Stimulus Payment Announced for Washington Families. Some low-income families
in Washington, D.C., are set to receive a payment of $1,000 as they prepare to return to school,
according to Mayor Muriel Bowser on Thursday [8/18/2022]. "We know that back-to-school time
can be an expensive time of year for families — new uniforms, haircuts, supplies.
There are a lot of expenses all at once," Bowser said. "So we are disbursing these funds now to
give families an extra cash bump during a busy time of year so that our students and families can
have a strong start to an important school year." Families enrolled in the Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families (TANF) are slated to receive the one-time payments, which were provided via the
Congress-passed American Rescue Plan in 2021, over the next several weeks. The mayor's office
said that 15,000 families are enrolled in the program.
A
pro-Herschel Walker gas giveaway fuels Democratic outrage. A long line of cars formed at a Chevron gas station
south of downtown Atlanta on Saturday [6/4/2022] as word spread that a political action committee was handing out $25
vouchers. Now the pro-Herschel Walker group's giveaway is fueling a different sort of backlash. The initiative by
34N22 was designed to highlight rising gas prices, a top issue for Republicans hoping to capitalize on inflation and economic
uncertainty to unseat U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock.
$10,000
for Your Vote? Never in our nation's history has a U.S. president concocted such a naked and rotten vote-buying
scheme. Of course, never in our nation's history has a U.S. president and his political party been so desperate for
votes. "White House officials are currently planning to cancel $10,000 in student debt per borrower, after months of
internal deliberations over how to structure loan forgiveness for tens of millions of Americans, three people with knowledge
of the matter said." So says The Washington Post, which added that Biden might've made the announcement last weekend during
his commencement address at the University of Delaware, but the Uvalde massacre apparently changed in his plans.
Biden
Tiptoes Closer to Mass Forgiveness of Federal Student Loan Debt. President Joe Biden is on the verge of
announcing $10,000 in federal student loan forgiveness per borrower for millions of Americans, according to The Washington
Post. "The White House's latest plans called for limiting debt forgiveness to Americans who earned less than $150,000
in the previous year, or less than $300,000 for married couples filing jointly," write Post reporters Tyler Pager,
Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, and Jeff Stein. Their sources did not say "whether the administration will simultaneously
require interest and payments to resume at the end of August, when the current pause is scheduled to lapse." Federal
student loans have been frozen since March 2020.
Former
Corinthian students get federal student debt erased. Hundreds of thousands of students who attended the
for-profit Corinthian Colleges chain will automatically get their federal student loans canceled, the Biden administration
announced Wednesday, a move that aims to bring closure to one of the most notorious cases of fraud in American higher
education. Under the new action, anyone who attended the now-defunct chain from its founding in 1995 to its collapse in
2015 will get their federal student debt wiped clean.
Biden
Plans To Cancel $10,000 In Student Debt Per Borrower Ahead Of Midterms. As soon as this weekend, President
Biden could announce a plan to cancel $10k in student debt per borrower, according to WaPo, citing three people with
knowledge of the matter. Biden could make the announcement at the University of Delaware's commencement ceremony on
Saturday. The plan would apply to Americans who earned less than $150k in the previous year or less than 300k for
married couples filing jointly. On April 6, the White House announced it would extend the pause of federal student loan
repayments through August 31. It wasn't clear if the administration would extend the moratorium beyond this.
It's not debt
forgiveness, it's debt transfer. Laura Ingraham sparked intense outrage on the left (what's new) with her
recent remarks criticizing President Biden's reported plans to push forward with his student loan debt "forgiveness"
scheme. Before we get to that, let's establish the obvious: this isn't debt forgiveness, it's a debt
transfer. Since money can't be evaporated or erased, the existing debt — that is, money that has already
been spent — will be paid by someone. What the president is promising to do is to tell the people who took
the loans that they don't have to fulfill their obligation to pay, while telling taxpayers they get to.
Biden
is circling closer to a student loan forgiveness executive order. Despite the lack of any definitive proof that
the President has the authority to simply cancel student loan debt without congressional approval, Joe Biden is reportedly in
talks to do precisely that and he claims a decision will be coming in a matter of weeks. The progressive lobby in
Congress has been pushing Biden to take such an action, but he supposedly isn't prepared to give them everything they
want. The target figure for progressives is $50,000 in debt relief for everyone. Biden said he's not going that
high and there are expected to be income caps associated with any proposed relief. What the exact figures are remains
to be seen. But if it's anything close to what's being suggested in this report from National Review, there are
definitely going to be a lot of questions among the public.
Biden's Loan Forgiveness
Fraud. His popularity flagging, President Joe Biden is using the oldest trick in the book to return voters to
the Democrats' fold: Don't earn their future votes, buy them. And that's exactly what Biden is doing with his $1 trillion
plan to "forgive" student loans. Biden had already allowed students to "postpone" paying their loans during the pandemic
"emergency," even those who have jobs and could make the payments. So why now forgive the loans? The truth is, one of
the biggest recent declines in Biden's support comes among Americans of college age and slightly older, the very group most likely
to have a pile of student loans. What better, or more cynical, way to revive their flagging political support than to bribe
them with a "free" education?
What
if Joe Biden forgives all student loans? Perhaps the Democrats in Washington are beginning to realize that even
their base, particularly the old school Democrats, are turned off by the Democrats' focus on peripheral issues such as
climate change, abortion, and transgenderism, while they ignore the record-high inflation that is rapidly draining voters'
savings, the supply chain crisis, the influx of illegal immigrants, and numerous other Biden-made crises. With only six
months left until midterms, the Democrats realize that the only way to enthuse and appease their base is to implement some of
the very radical items that have always been on their list. One of their most important voting bases are young voters,
who frequently carry significant student loans. They've been calling for debt forgiveness, which, of course, will
amount to a freebie. Freebies are often used to bribe voters prior to elections with the hope that a record of
misgovernance will be overlooked.
HUD
Pushes Voter Registration Drives in Public Housing Under Biden's Executive Order. The U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development will engage in voter registration efforts that in some cases allow mass collection of voter
registration forms by public housing officials, raising concerns about the potential for voter fraud among other legal
issues. HUD's voter registration drive comes as part of the "all-of-government" approach described in an executive
order from President Joe Biden. HUD sent guidance to executive directors of more than 3,000 public housing authorities
managing about 1.2 million housing units, providing advice on "running a PHA-initiated voter registration drive." In
government parlance, PHA stands for public housing agency.
The Editor says...
No one who lives in public housing or subsists on government handouts should be allowed to vote.
That's just common sense, but to put it into federal law would be politically impossible.
Without incentives and motivation, poor and lazy people will stay on welfare indefinitely.
Can
Biden buy votes with student debt relief? The 2020 Democratic presidential primary race was a bidding war in
which the various candidates advocated spending trillions of dollars to enact sweeping progressive agendas. Some
agendas were a bit more sweeping than others, but they all amounted to unprecedented increases in federal spending.
Take the issue of student loans. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the most progressive of the contenders, wanted to cancel all
$1.6 trillion in student debt — just throw out all student loans for 40-plus million people and somehow make Wall
Street pay for it. Sen. Elizabeth Warren pledged to forgive everyone's student loans up to $50,000. And
President Joe Biden, the most cautious of the bunch, promised to "forgive a minimum of $10,000 per person of federal student
loans." But here's the thing. It didn't happen, and yet no person with student loan debt has had to make a
payment, any payment, for more than two years. It is all in the name of COVID relief. And it is still going on.
California
Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to give tax breaks and up to $800 debit cards to all Golden State drivers as gas hits $5.88 a
gallon. California drivers shouldering the highest gas prices in the nation could soon get a tax break, free
public transportation and up to $800 debit cards to help pay for fuel — but economics experts warn it'll drive up inflation
even more. The proposal was revealed Wednesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, as gas prices have continued to soar in
recent weeks from pandemic-induced inflation and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 'That direct relief will address the issue
that we are all struggling to address and that is the issue of gas prices,' Newsom said in a video posted on Twitter this week.
Biden
Administration In Talks To Pay Illegal Immigrants $450,000 Per Person. If the Biden administration were trying
to convince Americans it had little sympathy for the economic distress, growing shortages, and job uncertainty many are
facing, one way to do it would be to offer an extreme amount of money to illegal immigrant families who claim they were
victims of separations under Trump's zero-tolerance immigration policy. It sounds insane, right? Well brace
yourselves. That is, in fact, what the Biden administration is in talks to do. [...] Although the numbers aren't final,
the payout could reach the staggering amount of more than $1 billion. That's a whole lot of cheese for what the
families say were health, mental and otherwise, problems caused by actions they themselves decided to inflict on their
children when they made the decision to enter the country illegally.
St.
Paul Mayor Melvin Carter signs executive order that provides guaranteed income for families in need. On
Thursday, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter signed Executive Order 2020-24 that authorizes the creation of the People's
Prosperity Pilot, St. Paul's Guaranteed Income Demonstration Program. A release from the mayor's office states
the program is led by the Office of Financial Empowerment. The People's Prosperity Pilot will provide up to 150
St. Paul families with $500 a month in guaranteed income for a period of up to 18 months. The projected budget
of up to $1.5 million will be supported through the Mayors For Guaranteed Income national network, philanthropy, and city of
St. Paul CARES funds. Households will be randomly selected from CollegeBound St. Paul families from the
city's most racially diverse and lowest wealth neighborhoods.
The
Indignity of Universal Basic Income. There is an increasing push to implement some form of Universal Basic
Income (UBI), especially among tech elites who believe that advances in robotics and artificial intelligence will bring about
mass technologically-driven unemployment. Andrew Yang, the founder of Venture for America, is running for president on
the belief that a UBI will resolve many of the woes of the losers of economic transition in recent decades. [...] Its virtues
in theory, however, don't negate the problems of proposing it as a response to anxieties about automation. The
intentions of today's UBI advocates bear only a passing resemblance to the arguments from efficiency or the moral desert of
citizens that once were cornerstones of the debate. Instead we hear of UBI as the only option for dealing with the
threat of mass automation.
Voting for
Dollars. What if correctional facility prisoners throughout the country were allowed to vote for any candidate
they wanted and there just so happened to be a candidate who ran on the promise that if elected all sentences would be
commuted to time served? And by voting together these prisoners constituted a majority, are there any doubts as to who
would win and what the results would be? Well, there is no need to think in the hypothetical for the answer because the
results of such a system are seen in most major liberal cities across the United States. And it's all done legally by
nonworking people who vote for Democrat candidates promising to overtax hardworking Americans to pay for the stuff they say
is "free."
Democrats
Introduce $100 Million 'End Diaper Need' Act. Two Democratic congresswomen on Thursday introduced the "End
Diaper Need Act of 2019", a bill they say "would create a $100 million demonstration program for distributing free diapers
and diapering products in states, communities, and nonprofits around the nation to help reduce the diaper need in low-income
families and underserved communities." Representatives Barbara Lee from California and Rosa DeLauro from Connecticut are
the sponsors. "No family should have to choose between buying diapers for their child or buying groceries —
but that is exactly the situation many families face every day," said Congresswoman DeLauro in a press release.
The Editor says...
From what I've seen at convenience stores, the lower-class customers have plenty of money for cigarettes, beer, and lottery tickets.
In fact, they're probably poor because they make unwise choices and they have
faulty priorities. In the example above, the Congresswoman claims that there are poor people who can't buy groceries if they buy
diapers. Nonsense. People like that don't buy groceries at all. You and I are already buying their groceries with
food stamps.
The
Great American Rip-Off. Ask a politician how he wants to balance the budget and, nine times out of ten, he'll
give you a politician's answer: cutting "waste, fraud, and abuse." Normally, the correct response to this is contempt and
mockery: What drives federal spending isn't office supplies walking out the back door with a rogue secretary at the Merit
Systems Protection Board — what drives federal spending is Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. And you know
where there's a lot of waste, fraud, and abuse? Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Identifying small-ball
efficiencies at obscure federal agencies would not do very much to get federal spending under control, but getting a grip on
the shenanigans that plague the major entitlements — especially the health-care entitlements — could
mean substantial savings, "substantial" here meaning hundreds of billions of dollars.
New Yorkers rally to subsidize MTA fare for
low-income residents. Sunday [3/19/2017] marked first day the newest MTA fare hikes took effect. While the price of a
single subway or bus ride has not increased, a coalition of New Yorkers said it was time to give low-income riders a
break. Activists, local officials, and community leaders came together to ask Mayor de Blasio to step in. They
want him to carve out a chunk of the 2018 city budget to subsidize MetroCards for New Yorkers below the poverty line.
The politics of envy behind 'white
privilege' nonsense. Many of those illegal immigrants trying to enter here come from circumstances much worse
than any existing in our inner cities. We live in a country with abundant resources available to all willing to work
for them and that is why President Trump is pushing jobs for all as the real end to poverty. 15 TRILLION dollars
have been spent in the war on poverty and yet liberals are still demanding more money for welfare programs so that the poor
can vote and keep them in office. Considering that most of these trillions did go to help the non-white, is it time to
reflect that there might also be a black privilege?
Free rides on the subway: Essentially an invitation to live on the train.
De
Blasio: MTA shouldn't hike fares because 'people are hurting'. Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday the MTA
should seriously reconsider its plan to raise fares for subway and bus riders next year. "I am very concerned about any
fare hike because I think people are hurting economically right now, and I think we have to be very, very careful about
putting an additional burden on people's lives," the mayor said on his weekly radio show on WNYC. "I think the MTA should
be very careful on this fare hike issue." Hizzoner also said he has yet to make a decision on a separate proposal by
anti-inequality advocates calling for Metro Card discounts based on people's incomes.
Chelsea Clinton Blunder! Admits
Hillary Will Give Illegals ObamaCare! As Hillary is also on board to continue to flood the country with
illegal immigrants, this in itself could be the death of America as we know it!
Clinton
offers Temple students debt relief, urges them to vote. Hillary Clinton, campaigning Monday at Temple
University, told college students — many of whom are drowning in debt — that she's the candidate to address their needs.
[...] Clinton told the crowd of 300 at Mitten Hall that she has a plan that would offer debt-free public college for
everyone, apprentice programs for those who opt to not go to college, and high-quality child care for every family.
The pitch was part of her campaign's push to get millennials involved and committed to voting for her in November.
California
Dems Push For Obamacare For Illegal Immigrants. California Democrats advocated for President Barack Obama to sign a
waiver allowing undocumented immigrants to buy healthcare plans through the Obamacare exchanges Wednesday [9/14/2016], claiming the
change would not be federally subsidized. California's Democratic delegation sent a letter to the administration Monday
pushing to make the state the first exemption from the Affordable Care Act's provision preventing illegals from purchasing plans.
Photos:
Embarrassing Turnout For Hillary Clinton Keynote Speech At Baptist Convention. [Scroll down] Clinton
repeatedly cited scripture during her speech, praising Baptist pastors around the country and promised increased government
spending to assist their congregations.
Everybody's a victim.
Student
loan bailout proposed for victims of university 'fraud'. If that Ivy League philosophy degree doesn't result in
the career of your dreams, cheer up: You may be able to have your student loans forgiven by claiming you were misled by
the university. A broadly written rule proposed by the Education Department would allow students to discharge their
federal loan debt if they can show that they were "defrauded or deceived" by a university's "substantial misrepresentation,"
an added layer of regulation that could leave universities and taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars. "We do
not need another federal bailout," American Commitment President Phil Kerpen said in a statement Wednesday [7/20/2016].
Food
Stamps Across State Increase After John Bel Edwards Drops Work Requirement. Louisiana residents receiving taxpayer-funded
food stamps is on the rise in the state, even though the national average is dipping, thanks to a plan to nix welfare reform by
Gov. John Bel Edwards. In an Associated Press (AP) report, some 19 percent of the state's 4.6 million
residents are now on food stamps. In just one year, the state has jumped 9 percent in food stamp dependency.
The Editor says...
There's only one reason for the Governor to make it easier to rely on food stamps: Politics.
Obamacare
Moves to Cover More Criminals. White House officials on Thursday [4/28/2016] announced a new rule that would extend
government-funded health care to most people living in halfway houses, providing coverage to nearly 100,000 additional
people. They also clarified for states that people on probation, parole or in home confinement were not considered
inmates of a public institution and could also receive the government-funded coverage. Medicaid, the program they will
be covered under, extends to the poorest Americans under Obamacare and comes at little or no cost to patients.
This is Obama's America: Everybody's a victim.
Obama
administration to write off $7.8 billion of student debt for hundreds of thousands of disabled graduates. The
Obama administration is to forgive $7.8 billion of student debt for hundreds of thousands of disabled graduates. Today
[4/19/2016] the Department of Education announced a new process for identifying 400,000 borrowers with disabilities who are
eligible for the federal loan-forgiveness program. Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell said that too few people
have been taking advantage of the program because they either weren't aware of it or felt it was too complicated.
The Editor says...
What counts as a disability? Stress? Unemployment? No sound from the left stereo speaker?
Why
Obama is forgiving the student loans of nearly 400,000 people. Hundreds of thousands of student loan borrowers
will now have an easier path to getting their loans discharged, the Obama administration announced Tuesday [4/12/2016].
The Department of Education will send letters to 387,000 people they've identified as being eligible for a total and
permanent disability discharge, a designation that allows federal student loan borrowers who can't work because of a
disability to have their loans forgiven. The borrowers identified by the Department won't have to go through the
typical application process for receiving a disability discharge, which requires sending in documented proof of their
disability. Instead, the borrower will simply have to sign and return the completed application enclosed in the letter.
Obama
Admin Pushes Federal Funding to Fix Diaper Inequality. The Obama administration has pushed some strange crusades
before at taxpayer expense, but "diaper disparity"? Apparently, yes. The White House website features a plea for
us all to "take action" on the country's "diaper divide." This means pushing federal funding to the tune of $10 million
U.S. tax-dollars to get "diapers to families in need." "Nearly 1 in 3 families struggle to afford diapers for their
babies," reads the March 10 post by Cecilia Muñoz, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council.
With
Every Other Problem Solved, Obama Makes Diaper Prices A Priority. An official White House email alerts the
public that while diapers "are basic necessities ... nearly one in three families struggle to afford them for their babies."
These families, the email says, are forced to choose among food, heat and diapers. "That's a choice no family should have to
make." The email directed recipients to a White House Web page [...] wherein Cecilia Munoz, director of the White House Domestic
Policy Council, laments that while the lucky few can buy diapers by the truckload at Costco or order them for cheap on Amazon, "the
benefits of the new economy aren't available to all Americans."
The Editor says...
Some luxuries are not "available to all Americans" because some Americans do not work, and some Americans are incurably
stupid, and some Americans spend their money on cigarettes, beer, concert tickets, false eyelashes, and scratch-off
lottery tickets rather than spending it on diapers for their illegitimate children.
A Retrospective
on the Obama Years. [Scroll down] Democrats have advanced two-tier drivers licenses, in-state college tuition,
sanctuary cities, and all types of welfare benefits on behalf of illegal aliens for years. For this, they have been handsomely
rewarded at the polls — especially in blue states. But that was prior to the mass child migration of 2014, high
profile crimes committed by sanctuary city-protected offenders — and Donald Trump. Put aside Trump's gratuitous
insults and hyperbole for a moment, and even the inconsistencies and ad hominem attacks on his opponents. His central premise
is impossible to dismiss: no sovereignty equals no country.
Colorblind America: A Malignant Fallacy.
Yes, African Americans are slightly more conservative than white Americans on social issues such as abortion and school prayer. The problem is that African
Americans do not vote on these issues. They vote on one issue: race. Wealthy blacks are just as likely as poor blacks to vote for the Democratic
candidate. The reason is simple: The Democrats are willing to give blacks more goodies. Republicans should recognize that in the short term
there is no way to win the black vote. What they should do, therefore, is allow the Democratic Party to be the party of blacks and black demands.
Obama
and the Insanity of the Liberal Mind. Liberal economic policies like Keynesian taxing and spending and increased minimum
wages are illogical and have failed. Affirmative action and other forms of social manipulation will not produce more productive
members of society but rather, more resentful minorities. And bringing in untold numbers of indigent immigrants, whether Hispanic,
Muslim, or otherwise, will only create more of a burden on government-run social welfare programs. The illogic of liberalism has led to
a doubling down of failed policies that are creating more poor, unemployed, and government dependents — and Democratic votes.
Feds'
'Welcome' Guide for New Immigrants Advises on Public Benefits — in 14 Different Languages. The Obama
administration has released an updated welcome guide for new immigrants in the U.S. featuring detailed sections about
obtaining public benefits including food stamps, welfare, and Obamacare. "You or members of your family may be eligible
for other federal benefits, depending on your immigration status, length of time in the United States, and income level," the
guidebook reads.
Loud and proud: The 'It's not fair' party makes it
official. Remember John Edwards speech about the two Americas? In 2004, he gave a powerful speech about the two Americas:
the America of the privileged and the wealthy, and the America of those who lived from paycheck to paycheck. Since I've always resided in
that second part of the country, I was interested in hearing his solution and guess what? I heard the same thing at the Dem debate weeks
ago. Take the money from the wealthy and give it to those like me who are struggling. Only problem is, their plans always take the
money away from me, the average taxpayer, to give it to someone who will vote for them even if they've never paid any taxes.
Welfare and Race. A single graphic explains
why it is a waste of time for the GOP to try to challenge Democrat hegemony among blacks and Hispanics.
Obama
program would give e-books to poor. President Obama on Thursday [5/1/2015] will
announce a strategy for providing 10,000 free e-books to children lacking financial resources.
Obama will announce the initiative from the Anacostia Library in Southeast Washington, D.C.,
according to Reuters. It will feature $250 million in e-books committed by multiple
publishers for the program.
The Editor asks...
What's wrong with ordinary books? Too traditional? Too American? Too white? The minute these
"children lacking financial resources" get their hands on a new electronic device of any kind, they'll head for the
nearest pawn shop.
Obama Is Not
Hitler. But if Obama continues to bring in people who have no interest in showing
allegiance to American ideals and values, and all he does is entice them with goodies, is this not
step one in transforming the country where the American Dream becomes the American nightmare?
After all, their first move was to break American law, aided and abetted by the con man in the White
House.
Dropouts
are the Real Problem. "Give a man a fish and he'll eat today. Teach a man to fish and
he'll eat forever." That old saying is one of the favorites of conservatives who see education as a
path to a better future. But that saying assumes that the proverbial "man" is willing to learn.
Therein lies the rub. Too many men (and women) are content to "eat today" rather than "eat forever."
[...] [T]he number of people receiving food stamps has, since 2009, increased from about 28 million
to over 47 million, a 70% increase from 2009 to 2013. Why is this important? Because high
school dropouts, those not willing to "learn to fish," make up nearly half the heads of households on welfare.
[...] So what does Dear Leader Barack Hussein Obama propose? Another give-away program.
Landrieu
supporters papering town with threats of losing government benefits. In the closing hours of the election,
Landrieu supporters have been busy bees indeed. One report coming in to Hot Air indicates that a very specific threat
has been going around to anyone in several low income communities as to what will happen if they don't get out there and vote
for the incumbent Senator.
Obamacare as Permanent
Welfare. President Reagan gauged the success of a welfare program by how quickly
people were able to move off government assistance and into remunerative work. Yet President Obama,
the White House, and their allies are measuring the success of Obamacare by how many people can be
enrolled in their new government entitlement programs. The president celebrated the law's
"success" in getting seven million people enrolled in Medicaid and eight million (or so) people enrolled
in exchange coverage, 87 percent of whom are receiving government subsidies for their insurance.
Shrinking
government and seeing a shrink. Avik Roy at Forbes describes why he feels that Obamacare is
unrepealable. Once a government program starts sending out tax credits or welfare checks it is more
firmly enshrined than the US constitution.
Dem Sen. Wyden: Give Every Child a
$500 College Savings Account. Sen. Ron Wyden, (D-OR) is intending to draft a law that would entitle every child born in the United States
to a $500 savings account of their own. Wyden stated that if there were universal savings accounts for newborns, it would "really put a dent in the
poverty rate."
The Editor says...
This is nothing new. Hillary Clinton had the same idea 6½ years ago, except her idea was to give
every newborn $5,000. The money wouldn't come out of
her pocket, or Senator Wyden's pocket, so why not offer $50,000?
When the Have Nots Become the Haves. New research from the Republicans
on the Senate Budget Committee shows that over the last five years, the U.S. has spent about $3.7 trillion on welfare. "We have just concluded
the 5th fiscal year since President Obama took office. During those five years, the federal government has spent a total $3.7 trillion on
approximately 80 different means-tested poverty and welfare programs. [...] The goal has always been to get enough people receiving benefits to
out-vote the ones paying for the benefits.
Satire:
Amnesty
Supporters Fast, Creates Glut Of Food Stamps! A USDA spokesman reports that the glut is so
severe that agency broadcasts (in Spanish) into Mexico to promote food stamps has been scaled back to just
two shifts, leaving the graveyard shift and tens of millions of illegal alien wannabes in Mexico grossly
underrepresented. Domestically, food stamp gluts have become pandemic in California, Texas, and
Georgia where millions of illegal aliens have joined the fast to protest the lack of respect for Mexican
culture and tradition.
Who Are the 47 Percent? When the federal government
spends $3.8 trillion a year, it can buy a lot of votes. Remember that every one of those 3.8 trillion dollars represents a check that
someone cashed. [...] Democrats in Washington D.C. are euphoric because they believe that they have forged a permanent majority that will rule for the
foreseeable future. That is indeed a frightening possibility: In today's world, with one in six Americans on food stamps and Kourtney Kardashian
better known than Dwight Eisenhower, a coalition of the dependent, the uninformed and the rabidly partisan can easily constitute a majority.
3 million
Californians could receive health insurance subsidies. [A new] report estimates that nearly 3 million Californians could be
eligible for generous insurance subsidies under the 2010 healthcare reform law, starting next year. Anyone with an income between one and
four times the federal poverty line — in other words, between $23,550 and $94,200 for a family of four — could receive a tax
credit that reduces monthly premiums dramatically.
The United States is a
Euro-Socialist Nation. The unspoken and well-hidden reality is that the "West" has finally reached the point of
saturation wherein its economies and societies can no longer afford to guarantee a certain standard of living for the citizens of
these countries in exchange for their votes. But that has not stopped the governing class in these nations from continuing
on this disastrous path.
Washington Proposes
$1 Trillion Bailout for Delinquent Student Loans. America's now-nationalized student loan industry just reached a value of
$1 trillion, according to Citigroup, growing at a 20 percent-per-year pace. Since President Obama nationalized the industry
(a tacked-on provision of the Obamacare bill), tuition has gone up 25 percent and the three-year default rate is at a record
13.4 percent.
Post-election surprise: A slew of bad news.
[For example,] Food-stamp enrollment hit a new record. (Can anyone keep up with all the records Mr. Obama keeps achieving?) In a mid-November Non-Surprise,
nearly 500,000 Americans signed on for food stamps in the months just before the election. In fact (and boy, are you going to be shocked at this), 47 million
Americans now depend on the federal government just to eat (and — wait for it — that's a 47 percent increase under Mr. Obama).
Time to Let the Country Crash?
Perhaps these people forget that Roosevelt was re-elected three times during a depression that he helped prolong — a
depression that featured soup lines and starvation in a population that actually wanted to work for a living and went on relief
only as a last resort, and then with a sense of shame. Thanks to food stamps, EBT cards, and other entitlements, Barack
Obama actually had an easier time. He just had to threaten that the evil rich would take away flat-screens and "crazy
money" to get enough votes. Imagine if people were really hungry.
What Did You Expect from Short
Term Thinkers? Obviously, what we've long suspected has been proven true. The takers now officially outnumber the makers.
It's human nature to want what others have and not want to do what others did to get it, but Obama has taken that to a whole new level by fostering
the belief that breathing is enough to guarantee you food, housing, education, and a cell phone.
Bleary Eyes, Broken Hearts, We Lost. It is the
leftist ideal world plus the lure of free stuff that brought Obama's vote back out in sufficient numbers to give him the win. Free stuff
and the promise of more free stuff is one of the few proposals that he actually ran on.
Is Obama buying the
election with his welfare explosion? With the unprecedented explosion of means-tested, welfare-related
entitlements, does Team Obama think it can buy the election?
The Sure Cure for Voter Fraud. The left already
buys votes by the tens of millions using our tax dollars to elect toadies who will oppose our economic interests and moral beliefs. The left
creates a vast superstructure of taxpayer-funded public schools, libraries, and colleges to brainwash young minds into becoming robots of leftism.
The left does not need or want to buy or coerce individual voters; it does not even think of Americans as individuals. So why does the left still
need to steal votes? The left needs voter fraud because at its core, the corrupt, vain, and dumb left is just that weak. What can we do,
though, if judges step in and stop laws intended to stop voter fraud from being enforced?
Free healthcare clinic at L.A. Sports Arena draws 4,800.
In addition to receiving medical treatment, patients were enrolled in a free coverage program to prepare for the federal healthcare overhaul that takes effect
in 2014.
Obama Is
Trying To Buy The Hispanic And Female Vote With Another Government Giveaway. Now that the polls say that President Barack Obama's poll
numbers with women and the Hispanics in the United States aren't as exceedingly high as they were previously, there is suddenly a new benefit to the
farming — and rancher — community who are either female or Hispanic, who feel they were discriminated against in the not-so-distant
past. How ironic that this benefit to females and Hispanics is being offered right before President Obama's reelection date. One might
logically think that the timing of this benefit to these groups — who vote — is planned to sway their presidential election vote on
November 6. It's just one of the many, many methods in which an incumbent president can grab some extra votes in the eleventh hour.
Who Will Out the Outers? Mitt Romney uttered an
uncomfortable truth: a large portion of the electorate has been bribed with government funds to vote for the party of government.
Noting aloud that the land of the free is slowly becoming the land of the freeloader isn't necessarily wrong. It's just not the kind of
thing polite politicians say in public — which, in defense of the too-polite Romney, he didn't.
Obama Saw
Welfare Class As Major Voting Bloc to Push His Progressive Redistributive Agenda. Now there is audio of Obama from 1998 where he said he saw
a growing welfare class as a way to further his progressive agenda.
Buchanan: Obama 'drug dealer of welfare'. President
Barack Obama is a "drug dealer of welfare," conservative commentator Pat Buchanan charged in an interview with Fox News's Greta Van
Susteren Tuesday night [9/18/2012]. "Barack Obama is a drug dealer of welfare," he said, speaking on "On the Record with Greta
Van Susteren." "He wants permanent dependency, in my judgment, of all these folks... somehow getting benefits, benefits, benefits
and paying no taxes."
Pat Buchanan: 'Fabian socialist' Obama 'is a drug dealer of welfare'. "This is the
great conflict of our time," Buchanan said. "Are we going down the road? Barack Obama, in my judgment, is a Fabian
socialist. You saw the 'redistribution,' and by that I mean he's not [Independent Vermont Sen.] Bernie Sanders, who is right out in
the open and honest about it, but he's a Fabian socialist who wants to move through gradualism and reform, step by step, until a majority
of Americans are dependent upon government. When that happens, the party of government wins every election."
Why is the race close? President Obama's re-election hopes should be
growing dimmer by the hour. His domestic policy has caused unprecedented suffering: high unemployment, gas prices that have doubled, and record
numbers on food stamps and disability. His foreign policy has emboldened our enemies. Our embassies are under attack and Iran's genocidal
leaders are closer to acquiring nuclear weapons. And yet it is a tight race. How can that be? Perhaps the polls are wrong. But
it's more likely that decades of media propaganda and public school indoctrination, as well as growing dependency on government, are taking their
toll.
Everybody is a victim under Obama Redistribution. Not
all of the 52.9% (69,456,897) Obama voters were government dependent, but the core that placed him in power certainly were, and still are.
How many of Obama voters then and now were then and now on food stamps? How many of them sit it out month by month waiting for the postman
to deliver their government checks?
"Buying the votes of welfare recipients in most blatant way."
Elizabeth Warren Dips into FDR's Bag of Dirty Tricks.
In an effort to stuff welfare recipients into voting booths in November, Warren's daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi is spearheading an effort to force the state
of Massachusetts to send out voter registration forms to state residents who are on welfare. The mailing will cost Massachusetts about $275,000. [...] But
back in 1939, even leading Democrats saw the potential destruction of our political system if politicians could so blatantly buy votes. In that year,
Senator Carl Hatch (D-N. Mex.) sponsored a successful bill to bar relief officials from blatantly campaigning for candidates.
Feds: Too few Americans 'turn
to government for assistance'. More Americans rely on their families for assistance than the government, so federal officials have
undertaken an effort to help people to apply for federal assistance. "Given that only 15 percent of you turn to government assistance
in tough times, we want to make sure you know about benefits that could help you," USA.gov announced today [8/27/2012]. The "government made
easy' website has created a "help for difficult financial times" page for people to learn more about the programs.
Whistle-blower,
documents: Illinois state workers forced to attend Pelosi, Jesse Jackson Jr. event on taxpayer dime. Documents and a whistle-blower affidavit obtained
by The Daily Caller charge that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Illinois Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., and Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., participated in an
unethical — and possibly illegal — effort to force 76 employees of an Illinois state agency to engage in political activity on the
taxpayers' dime. According to the whistle-blower, Rev. Jackson also encouraged the government employees to load first-generation and low-income college
students up with student loan debt — because Democrats in Congress, he allegedly promised, would eventually pass laws to forgive that debt later.
"[T]hose people will continue to vote Democratic," Jackson Sr. said, according to the whistle-blower.
Massachusetts
Sends Voter Registration Forms to 500K Welfare Recipients After Warren Daughter Lawsuit. This week, Mitt Romney ripped into
Barack Obama's "culture of dependency" — and rightly so. More people are now on food stamps than at any time in American
history; Obama's administration has gutted welfare-to-work requirements. There's a reason for that: the Democratic Party
relies on those to whom it signs checks to boost them back into office.
10
Concepts Liberals Talk About Incessantly But Don't Understand. [#7] Charity: Contributing your own money or time to a
good cause is charity. Liberals view themselves as charitable if they take someone else's tax dollars and give them away to people they
hope will vote for them in return.
If Obama wins, look for expansion of
the federal dole. First, on July 12, the Obama administration issued a directive that could result in the removal of the work
requirement from the landmark 1996 welfare reform law. The work requirement was the heart of that reform, and removing it would mean, in the
words of conservative welfare expert Robert Rector, "the end of welfare reform as we know it." It will likely also mean more people on
welfare, should Barack Obama — who has opposed welfare reform from the very beginning — win a second term. Second, the
Obama administration has made a far-reaching effort to increase the number of Americans on food stamps.
U.S. Becoming a Nation of Dependents.
The Obama administration is rapidly pursuing its vision of a "transformed" America — an America in which most people are dependent on
government, and therefore the party of government, the Democrats, will be dominant. One of the administration's prime vehicles for
stimulating dependence is the food stamp program, which [...] has exploded under Obama. Food stamps now make up 80% of "agriculture"
spending, and the Department of Agriculture has come under fire for aggressively building up the numbers of food stamp recipients. The
Department has put out literature explaining how to hold "food stamp parties" in one's home to get friends and neighbors into the program.
It also sponsored a series of Spanish-language radio ads encouraging illegal immigrants and others to get on the dole.
Obama's
Kind of Immigrants. Of course Obama wants illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants will depend
on the federal government for subsistence, if the federal government offers it. That's the whole purpose
of the Democratic Party in the first place: To create dependents and enhance their own power. But
think about what this means. The Democratic Party, and its standard bearer Obama, can only survive politically
if millions of people depend on them for their livelihood: Their food, their shelter, and what passes for
medical care and education when run by the government.
They Mean Well. Really?
The war on poverty, that has so far cost $16 trillion, has beggared America while achieving results exactly
contrary to those intended. The lower-class black family has been all but destroyed, with 70 percent of
children being raised in single-parent homes. Millions of inner-city denizens have been sentenced to a
lifetime of dependence and despondency, their self-respect demolished, their spirit crushed by the culture of
handouts. Meanwhile, the poverty level has not budged an inch. If a racist enemy planned to destroy
the black community, he couldn't come up with a more efficient strategy of achieving his objective. Ah,
but the deep thinkers who are responsible for this tragedy "meant well."
Roberts, Blankenhorn, and
the Power of Liberal Intimidation. Given how many more Americans define themselves as conservative rather than as liberal, let alone than
as left, how does one explain the success of left-wing policies? One answer is the appeal of entitlements and a desire to be taken care of.
It takes a strong-willed citizen to vote against receiving free benefits.
Government wants more people on food stamps.
More than one in seven Americans are on food stamps, but the federal government wants even more people to sign up for the safety net program.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been running radio ads for the past four months encouraging those eligible to enroll. The campaign is
targeted at the elderly, working poor, the unemployed and Hispanics.
The Editor says...
No, the campaign is targeted at the ignorant, the gullible and the lazy — especially if they are old enough to vote.
Magic Accounting. Lots of Americans are
conflicted and confused about our welfare state. That's forgivable — its programs are numerous, enormous, and complex. What's
unforgivable is how conservative politicians, rather than disabuse people of these misconceptions, exploit them to win electoral victories.
Sessions: Reid unwilling
to consider reasonable food stamp reform. The Senate's final vote on the farm bill is expected next week, but according to
Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, there will be no substantial reforms to the food stamp program due to Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid's obstructionism. Eighty percent of the spending from the farm bill this year goes to the federal government's
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, constituting $770 billion in spending over the next decade.
According to Sessions, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, Reid will not allow any of his reform measures — aimed
at dealing with the swelling cost and growth of the welfare program — to even receive a vote.
It's Not a
Welfare State, It's a Special Interest State. The problem is that the concept of "welfare" has become
an open, bottomless vessel into which every desire can be poured: Government takeover of the entire health and
retirement systems; detailed regulation of employment; manipulation of money; subsidies for housing, education, energy,
food; or anything else that strikes the fancy of some segment of the public. The "some segment" part is crucial,
because today's welfare has ceased to be limited to that of the public generally, or to the welfare of any group that
has a serious claim to special deserts.
California: America's Welfare
Queen. California is the nation's welfare queen: The state accounts for one-third of America's welfare recipients,
though it only contains one-eighth of the population, and there's no good reason for it. [...] The main reason that California is so
dependent on welfare is its uniquely lax enforcement of the provisions of the 1996 welfare reforms. As part of the creation
of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, the federal government put in place a set of regulations on
welfare payments to help or encourage recipients to return to work, such as the five-year lifetime limit on benefits.
California, however, is one of nine states that don't unconditionally enforce this supposedly nationwide provision.
Hope and
Change ... the Constitution. [Scroll down slowly] We ignore history's numerous examples of
how good intentions produce bad results. Almost 50 years ago, another "transformative" president
used government to launch a War on Poverty. But for many welfare recipients and their families, poverty
became "structural." People became dependent on government. After the government finally placed
some restrictions on welfare, dependency declined. Much to the surprise of those who denounced welfare
reform as cruel, people changed their behavior.
The List Could Be Longer.
President Obama has been the worst president for business in my lifetime. The result: a stagnant economy
where some half of American adults do not pay federal income taxes and almost half live in a household that received
benefits from the U.S. government. The President's rhetoric demonizing business and dividing the country, and the
Administration's actions hurting the business environment or specific industries have dampened business hiring.
Dem
Rep. Admits Party Expects Votes in Exchange for Gov. Handouts. When Democrats are actually honest with the American
people, they usually say things they wish they hadn't. Like the time Michelle Obama told a Wisconsin crowd in 2008 that she
was "really proud of her country ... for the first time in [her] adult life," or when John Kerry (D-Mass.) equated our military with
terrorists, or more recently, when Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-Penn.) admitted that Democrats expect votes in exchange for all the
free stuff that pass out to people via the government dole.
Government
Efforts To Mix And Match Races Usually Fail. Apparently the soaring national debt and the threat of a nuclear
Iran are not enough to occupy the government's time, because the Obama administration is pushing to force Westchester County,
N.Y., to create more low-income housing, in order to mix and match classes and races to fit the government's preconceptions.
Behind all this busy work for bureaucrats and ideologues is the idea that there is something wrong if a community does not have an
even or random distribution of various kinds of people.
It's official: Obama, the Food-Stamp President.
A new report from the Congressional Budget Office states that there are now almost 45 million Americans
getting food stamps — or, officially, the more genteel Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP). That's one out of every seven residents. The total yearly federal spending is $78 billion,
which has something like tripled in the last 10 years. The CBO estimates that the number of people SNAP
benefits will continue to rise before beginning to decline at the end of 2014 — though, judging from
the history of CBO forecasts, I'd say its guess is as good as yours.
The 'Obama Factor' and
Unemployment Statistics. The state-controlled Democrat Media Complex (DMC) loves to tout tiny improvements in the
unemployment rate as evidence that the "President's plans are working". I have to agree — those plans are
working just fine — if what the President wants to do is
reduce the number of
makers, and
boost the
number of
takers. On that score, Obama has made undeniable progress from Day One of his administration.
7 Devastating
Facts About the Obama Economy. [#2] Every seventh person you pass on the sidewalk now relies on food stamps.
Why Politicians
Promise Heaven And Deliver Hell. With all the talk about people paying their "fair share" of income taxes,
why do nearly half the people in this country pay no income taxes at all? Is that their "fair share"? Or is creating
more recipients of government handouts, at no cost to themselves, simply a strategy to gain more votes?
The Entitled
States of America: We Want More! A record 46.5 million Americans rely on food stamps, and in 2010 the federal
government paid out more money in the form of benefits than it collected in federal income taxes. But perhaps the most
striking measure of the success of the entitlement state has been the way it's eroded the stigma of being on the dole, while
spreading dependency as a virtue as widely as possible. In other words: Everybody should buy everybody's free
lunch. And free breakfast too.
The Taker Nation. [Scroll
down] At the end of the clip, an exasperated [Michael] Savage asked her what she did for a living, and she replied, "I'm
on welfare." Savage asked her where she thought welfare dollars came from, and she said, "From President Obama."
You could tell that Savage was getting angry, and he said, "Do you think Barack Obama makes your welfare payments out of
his pocket?" The woman was confused, but one thing was certain in her mind: she was absolutely positive that
Barack Obama was her benefactor. In her world, the hardworking taxpayers who actually foot the bill for her indolence
didn't even enter the picture.
Democrats
sneak Uncle Sam into your bedroom. [Scroll down] Politicians are like drug dealers. Once
you're addicted to freebies, you suddenly realize the free lunch is not so free. Like the drug dealers, the
politicians want your money, to be sure, but what they really covet is your submission. They love telling
you what to do and they always claim it's for your own good.
Govt. Funds Campaign To
Reduce Food Stamp Stigma. The effort to boost the food stamp rolls was announced this month [October,
2010] in California, where more than 3 million residents benefit from the federal program each month.
Evidently, state and federal officials believe the number is way too low for the virtually bankrupt state with a
population of about 37 million.
Govt.
Agency Celebrates Rise In Public Assistance In 2011. In its annual report to Congress the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) brags of an increase in the amount of public assistance it distributes and
that it's leading a "cultural transformation to increase diversity, inclusion and accessibility." The
bloated agency also boasts of its work on "some of the world's most pressing problems, including food security,
nutrition, food safety, climate change and sustainable bioenergy."
Food Stamps Become Lucrative
Biz. At stake are nearly $65 billion distributed annually to food-stamp recipients by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA). The number has skyrocketed in the last few years (from $28.5 billion in
2005 to $64.7 billion in 2010) in part because the Obama Administration has spent millions of dollars to
recruit more participants and reduce the "stigma" associated with food stamps, even as the number surged without
taxpayer-funded publicity campaigns.
USDA
Spends $5 Mil To Recruit Food-Stamp Recipients. The number of food-stamp recipients has skyrocketed
in the last few years yet the Obama Administration keeps wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to recruit more
participants in the name of eradicating "food insecure households."
Obama's Food Stamp Fetish.
Unlike the sign at the zoo cautioning us not to feed the animals, Americans are being taught that distributing food
to each other through the tax code is economically wise and socially just. But, notwithstanding the attempts
of the Obama administration to make us dependent on federal subsidies for everything from health care to energy to
mortgages, we are not caged animals reliant on the generosity of the zookeeper for our very survival.
Rep.
West: Democratic handouts an 'insidious form of slavery'. Freshman Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) on Wednesday
evening [2/15/2012] praised the Republican Party for consistently fighting for individual freedom over the last 150 years,
and criticized Democrats for pursuing "handouts" to the less fortunate that he said are a modern form of slavery. "Our
party firmly believes in the safety net," West said in a late Wednesday floor speech. "We reject the idea of the safety
net becoming a hammock.
A nation of takers.
More than 67.3 million Americans rely on assistance from Washington for everything from food, shelter and
clothing to college tuition and health care. These benefits cost federal taxpayers roughly $2.5 trillion
annually. About those taxpayers: Even as the number of Americans receiving federal aid rises, the number of
federal taxpayers continues to drop: Nearly half of all Americans — 49.5 percent —
don't pay any federal income taxes. If that strikes you as an equation that will spell trouble down the road,
you have a better grasp of the problem than many politicians have right now.
On
the Dole: A fifth of all Americans. Skyrocketing food-stamp enrollments over the last few years have
played a notable role in this year's presidential race, but it's not just food stamps that have exploded —
it's entitlements, generally: housing subsidies, Medicaid rolls, college loans and much, much more.
And the trend is threatening to chip away at the very pillars that keep America's civil society functioning.
Report:
Government Dependency Increases 23 Percent Under Obama. American dependence on government has soared to an
all-time high under the Obama administration, growing 23 percent in just two years, according to a new study by the
Heritage Foundation. The conservative research group's 2012 "Index of Dependence on Government" revealed that
67 million Americans are now banking on some federal program, including programs related to healthcare, housing,
welfare, education subsidies, and other government programs that were "traditionally provided to needy people by local
organizations and families."
It's
takers versus makers and these days the takers are winning. If you tried to hold a series of potluck
dinners where a majority brought nothing to the table, but felt entitled to eat their fill, it would probably work
out badly. Yet that's essentially what we're doing. In today's America, government benefits flow to
large numbers of people who are encouraged to vote for politicians who'll keep them coming. The benefits
are paid for by other people who, being less numerous, can't muster enough votes to put this to a stop.
Obama
Administration Blocks Reform of Food Stamp Fraud. As a Bloomberg News commentary notes, large
numbers of people who are not poor are getting food stamps, due to perverse incentives that encourage states
to deliberately classify people as eligible in order to draw federal money to their state. People are
eligible in some states even if they are not poor at all, but merely received an "informational brochure" for
welfare, or a tiny amount of state money that the state deliberately gave them that they didn't even need,
in order to qualify them for food stamps.
Is
President Obama Creating A Nation Of Dependents? This year, more than 46 million (15% of all
Americans) will get food stamps. That's 45% higher than when Obama took office, and twice as high as the
average for the previous 40 years. This surge was driven in part by the recession, but also because
Obama boosted the benefit amount as part of his stimulus plan.
Obama
Administration Offers $75,000 Grants to Sign Up More Food Stamp Recipients. Over the last three
years, the number of Americans on food stamps has skyrocketed by two-thirds and stands at a record-high 46 million
citizens, or one out of every seven people in the United States. Despite the historic rise in food stamp
use, however, the Obama Administration believes not enough people are receiving food stamps who should be and
is offering $75,000 grants to groups who devise "effective strategies" to "increase program participation" among
those who have yet to sign up.
Takers Taking Over.
Like the socialists who govern Greece, Obama's left-wing administration depends on the support of left-wing
activists, unionized government workers, radicalized students, and welfare recipients. All of these groups
have been pressing for more government spending, and Obama has not disappointed them. ... Ominously, the
percentage of takers, those who collect benefits and pay no federal income tax, now sits at 49%. Anything
beyond that and the country is lost forever.
The
truly dismal state of the union. Some 48 percent of all Americans —
146.4 million — are considered by the Census Bureau either as "low-income" or living in poverty,
up 4 million from when Mr. Obama took office; 57 percent of all children in America now live in such
homes. Since December 2008, a month before Mr. Obama took office, food-stamp use has increased 46 percent.
Total spending has more than doubled in just four years to a record high of $75 billion. In 2011,
more than 46 million people — about one in seven Americans — got food stamps.
That's 14 million more than when Mr. Obama took office.
Presidential nonsense: Last week,
President Barack Obama, at a Capital Hilton fundraising event, told the crowd, "We can't go back to this brand
of you're-on-your-own economics." Throughout my professional career as an economist, I've never come across
the theory of "you're-on-your-own economics." I'm guessing what the president means by — and
finds offensive in — "you're-on-your-own economics" is that it's a system in which people are held
responsible for their actions, that they take risks and must live with the results, that people can't force
others to pay for their mistakes, and that they can't live at the expense of other people.
24 Stats To Crush Anyone Who
Thinks America Has A Bright Economic Future. [#21] The number of Americans on food stamps
continues to set new all-time records. Just check out the following progression....
October 2008: 30.8 million Americans on food stamps
October 2009: 37.6 million Americans on food stamps
October 2010: 43.2 million Americans on food stamps
October 2011: 46.2 million Americans on food stamps
Nation's largest welfare
state makes deep cuts. Advocates of welfare reform in California often cite one, eye-popping
statistic as they have pressed for cuts and changes to the program in recent years: The state has
one-eighth of the nation's population but one-third of all welfare recipients.
The Democratic
Party's War on the Poor. The day the American welfare system first made it more desirable to
stay on relief than to move up to just the next notch upward — that was the day that the Democrats
truly declared war on America's poor. The right may not look like Santa Claus nearly as often as the
left does, but the right is always the one with the best interests of the poor in mind.
A Different Kind
of Hope and Change. As America appears to edge ever closer to a disastrous economic tipping
point — defined as the point at which the majority becomes dependent on the government —
we find ourselves wondering if the downhill slide is inevitable and irreversible.
Obama's Poverty Politics.
[Scroll down] Bill Clinton was prodded by a Republican House to reform welfare by imposing work requirements,
time limits, and other measures that were geared towards helping those on welfare break free from
depending on the government. And it worked — millions of people left the welfare rolls and
became productive and proud workers. However, Barack Obama is all about "change," and he has been busy
rolling back welfare reform.
Catch-22 on Poverty and
Welfare. The government's statistical sleight of hand when measuring poverty and inequality is no
accident. The Census Bureau's poverty report was created at the beginning of President Lyndon Johnson's War
on Poverty in 1964. Bureaucrats designed the poverty report as an advertising tool for expanding the welfare
state. To justify increased government spending, the report exaggerates poverty. For nearly 50 years,
the Census Bureau has ignored actual living conditions and seriously miscounted income. Measuring poverty
is the welfare state version of Three Card Monte. The taxpayers (known in the trade as rubes or marks) fork
up hundreds of billions to help the poor through anti-poverty programs. But when it is time to count the
poor, the money magically disappears.
Another Load of Trickle-Up Economics.
It's the return of Trickle-Up Economics, an article of nearly religious faith on the Left these days, despite the
rather stunning volume of evidence that it doesn't work. Cast a flurry of government dollars across the
deserving poor, and their rush to spend Big Government's largesse will cause businesses to pop up all over the
place and begin hiring. Obviously liberals are in love with this fantasy, because it means Big Government
gets to exercise ever-greater control over the private sector. Taxpayer money is seized and spent, while
liberals get to posture as the selfless champions of the little guy. The fact that it doesn't work is a
feature, not a bug, because it creates ever greater demand for that compassionate welfare spending.
Dependent constituencies are the lifeblood of collectivist politics.
Nation
Reporter: 'Deep Racism' at the Heart of Food Stamp Reform. With a record 46 million Americans
now receiving food stamps and rampant abuse resulting in what the
Wall Street Journal calls a "food stamp
crime wave,"
Nation reporter Lizzie Ratner believes that "deep racism" is "at the heart of conservative
food stamp critiques".
Rats in the Kitchen: A
Parable. Once, there was a man who had to deal with rats when he had a major infestation in his
home. The rats' normal environment became unable to support them all, and they began coming down from the
hills looking for new digs... and decided they liked the man's house. They were perfectly happy to hunker
down in the attic, garage and basement with free access to the goodies in the kitchen and pantry. And once
they had moved in and saw what rich booty was to be had, they were determined to take over.
The
Welfare State Neutralizes Opponents by Making Them Dependent on Government. As the ranks
of those dependent on the welfare state continue to grow, the need for the rulers to pay attention to the
ruled population diminishes. The masters know full well that the sheep will not bolt the enclosure in
which the shepherds are making it possible for them to survive. Every person who becomes dependent on
the state simultaneously becomes one less person who might act in some way to oppose the existing regime.
The
2010 Index of Dependence on Government. The number of Americans who pay taxes continues to
shrink — and the United States is close to the point at which half of the population will not
pay taxes for government benefits they receive. In 2009, 64.3 million Americans depended on the
government (read: their fellow citizens) for their daily housing, food, and health care. Starting in
2015, the Social Security program will not receive enough taxes to pay all the promised benefits —
which will be hard for all job-holders, but devastating for roughly half the American workforce that has no
other retirement program.
Lines
Grow Long for Free School Meals, Thanks to Economy. The number of students receiving subsidized
lunches rose to 21 million last school year from 18 million in 2006-7, a 17 percent increase,
according to an analysis by The New York Times of data from the Department of Agriculture, which administers
the meals program. Eleven states, including Florida, Nevada, New Jersey and Tennessee, had four-year
increases of 25 percent or more, huge shifts in a vast program long characterized by incremental growth.
What
Has Barack Obama Wrought? What the Obama administration has produced is not the social-democracy
or socialism it might have meant to move the nation towards, but rather a state-employment dependency sector
that now dominates the economic structure of the nation. A nation in which 17 percent of the employed
work force depends on direct government employment — state and national — or government
contracts, and entitlements ranging from retirement to housing allowances, education loans, welfare programs, food
stamps, and the like.
Number on food stamps soars.
CalFresh, formerly the food stamp program, says that in September in Merced County, 51,343 people received
CalFresh, a 70 percent increase since September 2006. The average monthly CalFresh benefit is $146
a person. In Merced County, 35,000 low-income adults are estimated to be food insecure. That means
that within the county, 40 percent of all adults with incomes of less than 200 percent of the federal
poverty level (less than $36,000 a year for a family of three in 2009) struggle to afford adequate, nutritious
food, CalFresh said in a news release.
The Editor says...
Why is the line drawn at 200 percent of the poverty level? Why not reserve this expensive program for those
who really need it, like those
below the poverty level?
The
United States Can't Afford Four More Years of President Obama. Soon, people who pay no taxes and
receive the lion's share of the benefits will be the majority in this country, and you can expect them to vote
in their own self-interest. They will support candidates like Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid
who promise to continue funding programs that funnel money to them and to tax the rich to pay the bills.
In the process, they will destroy this nation. They're doing it now. Our deficit and debt problems
make that perfectly clear. We may have reached the point of no return, and if Barack Obama is re-elected,
the end of the United States as we know it may be in sight.
Quit
Coddling Everybody. Everyone should pull their own weight. And anyone who does not should
feel horrible about leeching off this great society. Instead, however, Washington has encouraged this
belief that government is the answer to all our problems.
Ben
Franklin Skewers Obama's Jobs Proposal. Ben Franklin's essay, "On the Price of Corn and
the Management of the Poor," directly responds to President Obama's jobs proposals:
I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing
good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out
of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public
provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became
poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves,
and became richer.
Barack
Obama has formed his entire platform of social justice on the very opposite principle.
The Great
Obama Welfare State. As it stands now, Obama appears headed toward an economic
legacy that may very well surpass Jimmy Carter in its level of failure. We have seen under
this president an expanding number of citizens who are partially or wholly dependent on the
government for their very livelihood, as the data show that the U.S. has become an ever-growing
welfare state under Obama.
USA becomes Food
Stamp Nation but is it sustainable? Altogether, there are now almost 46 million people in
the United States on food stamps, roughly 15 percent of the population. That's an increase of
74 percent since 2007, just before the financial crisis and a deep recession led to mass job losses.
At the same time, the cost doubled to reach $68 billion in 2010...
Obama Baits the
Dependency Trap. An [Obama] administration program will expand free school meal coverage to
millions of young people who are not even supposed to be eligible. ... Here's how the program works: if
40% of students at a school qualify for public assistance, then every student in the school will get free
food. That's free breakfast, lunch, and a snack. If that sounds like arbitrary welfare waste,
it is. Sixty percent of the student body could be above the poverty line, ineligible for welfare,
or even upper-class — it doesn't matter. Every student magically becomes entitled.
The
70-Million-Check Constituency. Obama and the left have a massive constituency of
tens of millions who do not comprehend the true meaning of money, only caring that the government
check is in the mail.
Big
Government Means Small People. While liberals are certain about the moral superiority of liberal
policies, the truth is that those policies actually diminish a society's moral character. Many individual
liberals are fine people, but the policies they advocate tend to make a people worse. Here are ten
reasons: [#1] The bigger the government, the less the citizens do for one another. If the
state will take care of me and my neighbors, why should I?
Liberal
Frankensteins. Indeed, what makes this Fourth different from recent celebrations is the ongoing
repudiation of almost everything antithetical to the Founders' views — the redistributive, all-powerful
welfare state, the therapeutic arrogance that believes human nature can be altered by an omnipotent well-meaning
government, the postmodern notion that nationhood and borders are passé, and the utopian idea that war can
be declared obsolete and the need for defense transcended. From Greece to California such dreams are dead.
Welfare nation. The
latest economic indicators suggest America's sputtering economic engine may conk out once again. Disappointing
service-sector and job-growth figures released Wednesday [5/4/2011] are signs of rough times ahead. With a weak dollar and
stratospheric gasoline prices, millions more could find themselves seeking government assistance. The
administration appears to be just fine with that.
If
Our 'Food Stamp Recovery' Persists, Obama Will Lose Big. I have noticed something unsettling in my own
life lately: I know a lot of people who are on food stamps or some kind of extraordinary government assistance.
The count right now stands around 10 people, which is a lot for a small town denizen such as myself. That
is a personal reminder of a very serious, yet rarely discussed economic, social, and indeed political problem:
the fact that better than one out of seven Americans today requires government help to put food on the table.
The Obama administration is using (mostly black)
churches to expand the welfare state.
Michelle's Machine:
[Scroll down] Religious leaders are prodded to work with schools to "create a wellness club for teachers with
volunteer instructors from the congregation" and to "help your local school install a salad bar in its
cafeteria." Most worrisome, though, are the administration's efforts to have congregations place
themselves in the service of government as recruiters for the welfare state. Congregations are told
to "encourage eligible families to enroll their children in [government-subsidized] school meal programs"; if
organizations operate day-care or after-school programs, they are advised to pursue reimbursement for meals and
snacks through the Child and Adult Care Food Program (a federally funded, state-administered welfare program).
Places of worship are asked to serve as feeding sites for the Summer Food Service Program — another
federally funded, state-run welfare project.
The Editor says...
Where are the "separation of church and state" people now?
America,
the Dependent. In New York, Philadelphia and a total of 30 sites across the country,
AmeriCorps and the Department of Agriculture are funding the "National Anti-Hunger and Opportunity
Corps" to "increase access to food stamps." National Affairs managing editor Meghan Clyne
reports that the administration is roping in left-wing churches to aggressively promote food stamps.
With institutional support from first lady Michelle Obama, the FoodStampCorps will train church members
to apply for food stamps after religious services...
Top 10 Spending Cuts Thwarted by
Democrats: [#9] Legal Services Corporation: Long before Hillary Rodham was first
lady (and before she started using her husband's name), the Rose Law Firm lawyer was named by President
Jimmy Carter to serve on the Legal Services Corporation board. During her tenure as chairwoman, she was
able to triple the budget for the agency, which aids poor people with their legal problems. ... Obama wants to
add $30 million to its budget, while the GOP wants to cut $100 million.
The Welfare State of
the Union. What we hear, again and again, is the fantasy that government creates jobs, government
drives the economy, government feeds kids and sends them to bed happy. The facts are just the opposite.
In fact, the Department of Agriculture has just reported that 43.6 million Americans are now receiving
food stamps. Significantly, in 2006, near the height of the historic Bush economic expansion, the number
of Americans receiving food stamps was just over 20 million. Since then, the number of recipients
has more than doubled, with nearly all of the increase coming under the presidency of Barack Obama.
Stop the Fraud —
Freeze the Debt Ceiling. Cuts are not politically viable in our democratic welfare state.
Generations have been conditioned to "gimme" politics. As a result, no politician can run and win on a
platform of "vote for me and this is what I will take away from you." That is why cuts never come and
spending rises inexorably. That is why the debt limit will be raised again (and again and again) until
the dollar and economy collapse.
Back on Uncle
Sam's Plantation. Six years ago I wrote a book called "Uncle Sam's Plantation." I wrote
the book to tell my own story of what I saw living inside the welfare state and my own transformation out of
it. ... I talked about government programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Job Opportunities
and Basic Skills Training (JOBS), Emergency Assistance to Needy Families with Children (EANF), Section 8
Housing, and Food Stamps. A vast sea of perhaps well intentioned government programs, all initially set
into motion in the 1960's, that were going to lift the nation's poor out of poverty. A benevolent Uncle
Sam welcomed mostly poor black Americans onto the government plantation. Those who accepted the invitation
switched mindsets from "How do I take care of myself?" to "What do I have to do to stay on the plantation?"
The government usurps the role of churches and private charities:
City puts a stop to homeless
outreach. Bobby and Amanda Herring spent more than a year providing food to homeless people
in downtown Houston every day. They fed them, left behind no trash and doled out warm meals peacefully
without a single crime being committed, Bobby Herring said. That ended two weeks ago when the city shut
down their "Feed a Friend" effort for lack of a permit. And city officials say the couple most likely
will not be able to obtain one. ... Anyone serving food for public consumption, whether for the homeless or
for sale, must have a permit, said Kathy Barton, a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Department.
The Editor says...
Obviously the government's goal is to have as many people as possible dependent on
it rather
than the local churches or generous individuals. It's a not-so-obvious means of buying
votes: If you depend on the almighty government for your daily bread, you'll naturally
vote for the political party that will perpetuate that arrangement.
15
states get bonuses for adding uninsured children to Medicaid rolls. Even states can get
performance bonuses, at least when it comes to moving kids from the "uninsured" to the "insured" list.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that 15 states will be getting a little
something extra in their end-of-the-year stockings for their effectiveness at providing health insurance to
kids through Medicaid.
The Editor says...
In other words, the federal government is bribing the states to get more people dependent on welfare.
Behind
the broccoli: Liberalism's war on liberty. What this country needs is a crop of healthy, hunger-free
kids — and now, thanks to the hectoring of Michelle Obama and the terrible swift presidential pen of
her husband, it has one: the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. ... ObamaCare and the Healthy, Hunger-Free
Kids Act of 2010 are the things that expose modern liberalism for the iron fist in the velvet glove. Can't
feed yourself? Dinner's on us. Out of work? We'll pay you to stay unemployed. After all,
you're too stupid to make your own best decisions in what used to be personal matters. All we ask in
exchange for your freedom is your vote.
Food Stamp Nation. "The lessons of
history ... show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration
fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic,
a subtle destroyer of the human spirit." These searing words about Depression-era welfare are from Franklin
Roosevelt's 1935 State of the Union Address. FDR feared this self-reliant people might come to depend
permanently upon government for the necessities of their daily lives.
Obama Underwrites
Irresponsibility — Again. The Obama administration has announced another plan to help
between 500,000 and 1.5 million American homeowners who owe more money on their mortgages than their homes
are currently worth. The "short finance plan" is simple: creditors write down mortgages to a number
less than the value of the property — and then handoff the reduced loan to the American taxpayer via
the Federal Housing Administration. In other words, all taxpaying Americans are on the hook for the
irresponsible behavior of a minority of their fellow Americans — again.
Dallas
Rep. Jeb Hensarling wants to eliminate Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac. For years, conservatives inveighed
against government-backed mortgage firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The complaints began with their dominance
of the market and ended with a warning that taxpayers would bail them out one day. Now that critics have
been proven right, they're on the spot to show they know what's best for the future. Among the questions:
Should Fannie and Freddie be privatized? Abolished? And how would government support the housing
market without them?
The Editor says...
Oh, dear. The
hack writer at the Dallas Morning News can't understand how anybody
could buy a house without government help. President Obama's goal is to maximize the number of people who are
dependent upon the government. The sooner Fannie and Freddie are buried, the better off we the people will
be — at least those of us who pay taxes and purchase our own food and housing with money we have
rightfully
earned.
A
Food Bill We Don't Need. Feeding a child is one of the most basic parental
responsibilities, yet first lady Michelle Obama wishes to liberate parents from this fundamental
role by urging them to rely on the public schools to feed their children. In [an] op-ed in the
Washington Post, the first lady pushes for congressional passage of the Child Nutrition Act, a bill that
would not only increase funding for the already-wasteful and badly managed school-lunch program but relax
eligibility requirements so that more children can be enrolled. It's clear that Michelle Obama, like
her husband, sees government as the great fixer.
How
Jobless Aid Became Dysfunctional. Ever watch a parent lecture a demanding child about
self-discipline — then give him everything he asks for? That's the pattern Congress is falling
into. Beleaguered governors and advocates for the jobless are pleading with Congress to extend
unemployment insurance, for at least the sixth time since 2008.
The Parade of
Bleeding Stumps. As public spending becomes an increasingly important issue for the
November elections, be prepared to see the left engaging in hysterical scare-mongering about the
potential effect of spending cuts. This has been seen recently in Britain, where such scare-mongering
already has its own label — "The Parade of the Bleeding Stumps." This unsavory phrase
originates in British government bureaucracy and darkly refers to the Civil Service's clever response
to the threat of spending cuts.
Stop me
before I spend again! Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes says the state owes billions to schools,
rehabilitation centers, child care, state universities and he told The New York Times, "it's getting worse
every single day." He calls the state's inability to pay for essential services "obscene." The
real obscenity — in Illinois, California, New York and especially Washington, D.C. —
is an inability to live within the means taxpayers provide. Despite record high taxes in these states
and more coming at the federal level, government never has enough of our money. But it isn't all
government's fault. Too many Americans have come to rely on government to take care of them, and
government has passed the point where it can do so any longer.
Government
Dependency Surges; Addiction To Get Worse. Today the conservative Heritage Foundation released
its 2010 version of the Index of Dependence on Government. ... Americans' dependence on government grew by
13.6% in 2009. That's the biggest increase since 1976 and the fifth largest going back to 1962, when
Heritage began tracking dependence. The index measures federal government programs that can crowd
out or constrain private sector or local government alternatives.
Dramatic
Spike in Dependence Projected. Year after year, The Heritage Foundation's Index of Dependence
on Government documents the ever-growing number of federal aid programs and the ever-growing number of
Americans who rely on government subsidies for their existence. The number of Americans who now
pay no taxes has passed 35 percent.
Jobs:
Too Many Riding, Too Few Pulling. The one thing that economists seem to agree on is that any economic
recovery will be an uphill battle for some time to come. But if you've ever pulled a heavy wagon up a hill,
you know what happens if your fellow pullers decide to become riders instead and jump on the wagon.
We're too broke to be this
stupid. In any advanced society, there will be a certain number of dysfunctional citizens either
unable or unwilling to do what is necessary to support themselves and their dependents. ... When Michelle Obama
turned up to serve food at a soup kitchen, its poverty-stricken clientele snapped pictures of her with their
cellphones. In one-sixth of British households, not a single family member works. They are not so
much without employment as without need of it. At a certain level, your hard-working bourgeois understands
that the bulk of his contribution to the treasury is entirely wasted. It's one of the basic rules of
life: if you reward bad behaviour, you get more of it.
Slaves to
the government dole. Throughout our history, politicians and pundits have often said "America
is at a crossroads." Sometimes it was true, as in the final convulsive years leading up to the Civil
War when we decided to end slavery. New data on personal income, taxes and dependency makes clear that
the country is again at a historic crossroad and another form of slavery is the central issue. There are no
iron chains involved this time, but dependence on government for economic sustenance is no less an enslavement.
What Exactly is 'Social
Justice?' Social justice is the complete economic equality of all members of society. While
this may sound like a lofty objective, what it really means is that wealth should be collected by the government
and evenly distributed to everyone. In short, social justice is communism. It is rooted in the
Marxist idea that the money people make, and the property they own, do not rightfully belong to the people
who make the money and own the property.
The Ugly Side of Social
Justice. Although [Glenn] Beck has been adamant in expressing that his objections are solely
concerned with how — not whether — the needy should be assisted, Wallis nonetheless
seems content in portraying him as antagonistic to the plight of the poor. And because of this unfair
portrayal, Beck has been painted in the media as a monster for simply emphasizing his belief that it is better
for individuals to donate their assistance to the downtrodden by choice rather than by dictate.
Jobpocalypse
now. This week, the Senate is expected to extend jobless benefits to more than 5 million
Americans through the end of the year. It is the sixth time in nearly two years that they've expanded
or extended unemployment benefits — putting off, again, a day of reckoning our political leaders
seem unwilling to face.
Has Obama
"Stimulated" the Economy Yet? In the past sixteen months, Mr. Obama's immediate, short-term political
need has produced a lot of public policy that positions the President to appear as though he's rescuing people — rescuing
them from the economic downturn, from "greedy bankers" and "rich executives," from the threat of home foreclosure, from
credit card debt, and so forth. And part of the political calculus involved with this kind of policy is the
assumption that as long as the President gives away enough "things" to the American electorate, and appears as though
he's doing enough to "protect" them, the electorate will continue to vote for him and his party, regardless of what the
economy does.
Preparations for Reparations.
When the government decides what kind of light bulbs one can buy, what size toilet tank one can install, or
how much salt can be added to one's food, then there is no limit to the depth and detail of government
intrusion into one's life. When every aspect of existence is decided or dictated by another, that is not
freedom. That is slavery. Lest you think that only the half of Americans who actually pay taxes
are slaves, let me hasten to address the rest. Those who exist on the public dole, on welfare and
subsidies and federal aid, are also slaves. They are kept healthy, kept solvent, and just plain kept
because they are vital to the whole system of slavery. Every couple of years, this growing group of
dependents is harvested for their votes.
Stimulus
Bill Abolishes Welfare Reform and Adds New Welfare Spending. A major public policy success,
welfare reform in the mid-1990s led to a dramatic reduction in welfare dependency and child poverty. This
successful reform, however is now in jeopardy: Little-noted provisions in the U.S. House of Representatives
and U.S. Senate stimulus bills actually abolish this historic reform.
Looking At Democracy. Every
time I use the word "democracy" to describe the process by which Americans elect their representatives, someone
leaps to their computer to inform me that America is a "republic" and not a democracy. I am well aware of
this, but it does not change the process. It got me thinking about Alexis de Tocqueville's trip throughout
America in 1831-1832. ... Presciently, Tocqueville wrote, "The American Republic will endure until the day
Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." That day has arrived.
Socialism
Vs. Capitalism: Illustrated on Film. [Scroll down] Governments don't produce, they
consume. They take from the people who create things and convert some of those resources into "benefits".
These benefits are, more often than not, bribes to ease us into letting them keep spending our money like mad.
At some point, a long time ago, they stopped caring about wanted and started telling us what was good for us.
They began taking more and more tax dollars and bribing the least productive citizens so they'd have voters who
can override the productive citizens if they complained too much.
The Land of Entitlements.
[Scroll down] To put this in context, one must realize that there are no Medicare recipients alive today
who have firsthand knowledge of being without Medicare while elderly. Some may remember their parents or
grandparents surviving well into old age without Medicare, but not themselves. Very few alive today remember
a time without Social Security. Within the space of a human lifespan, our society has become a culture conditioned
to accept (and expect) entitlements as the norm without questioning the consequences. It has been a very
effective strategy to enlarge government.
Denying the
Truth at all Costs. The facts are well known. Government at all levels has grown faster than
any other segment of the economy. Government, also, pays far more than corresponding workers in the private
sector and has lavish benefit packages unmatched by any private worker. As the Cato Institute detailed in
their January, 2010 Tax & Budget Bulletin # 59, the compensation scales and benefits of government are
simply unsustainable. They cannot continue; there must be an adjustment. But blocking that
"adjustment" is the primary goal of labor unions.
The state and local governments are actively trying to get more people dependent on them.
Food bank will qualify applicants for
stamps. Houston's food bank will begin helping qualify eligible Texans for food stamps today [3/1/2010]
under special authority from federal officials designed to shorten long wait times. The waiver will allow food
banks in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Fort Worth to handle food stamp applications directly. Food bank
officials in those cities will have access to state computers to make sure applicants are eligible and not
already receiving food assistance.
The Grasshopper and the
Ants. Once upon a time, there was a happy-go-lucky grasshopper who lived only to have fun.
All through the long summer days, he would sing and dance, and laugh at the industrious ants who were busily
preparing for winter. But then cruel winter came, and the grasshopper was starving.
Freedom is Hard Work.
When wealth redistribution occurs in the false name of compassion, liberty is damaged for everybody. Meanwhile, the
seeds of class warfare, resentment and discontent, are sown from coast to coast. The very fact that we have a literal
"dependency class", a class that is convinced it will perish if not directly supported by government action, is a national
outrage.
Workers Against Lazy Non-producers United Together.
We can no longer sit back and let our government spend our hard earned money on those who choose to be
non-producers of society. We must stand united and let our voices be our weapon. We The People
must remind our elected officials, that those who have put them in office, can & will take them
away. ... Non-producers will no longer be given life and prosperity but forced to earn it as we have!
How Liberalism Exploits The Vulnerable.
Not knowing that she was on camera, this "community organizer" gave away the dirtiest of the dirty secrets of the
left. Herein lies the explanation of how and why major segments of America, particularly in urban areas, upon
becoming increasingly liberal over the past several decades, have become more lawless, more hopeless, and more
helpless. While claiming to "help the little guy," liberalism has a vested interest in keeping the "little
guy" oppressed and dependent. Only in such a state can he fulfill his intended role as a "resource" of the
liberal machine.
These Dis-United States. The
liberal/progressive movement has convinced modern man that to satisfy his material needs it is not necessary to labor
exhaustingly in pursuit of said needs; but much more beneficial to modern man to simply reallocate resources from those
who can afford to do so. The foundations of the welfare state having been laid, the free market struggles to provide
for its legitimate members as well as those of a lesser inclination. The mixed economy may go on for years before the
weight of redistributive legislation finally brings the golden goose to a prone position. The tipping point, however,
has finally been reached. Better than 50% of the class of lesser inclination now feed at the trough of Federal
largesse.
Activist
Blames Poverty on Liberalism. Blaming poverty on liberalism and the federal
government, a conservative activist on Friday [9/14/2007] said: "It is very sad what
the liberals have done with their war on the poor in this country." "After 40 years
of failure, they still insist that they want to expand this war, that they think they should
pour more money into this war," said Star Parker, president of the Coalition on Urban
Renewal and Education.
East Berlin, D. C.
Increasingly, visiting our nation's capital can only be likened to visiting a distant dystopia, with problems that
don't seem quite at home in America. Criminals are the most obvious malefactors, but surely part of the
problem is government. The seat of our own government is run as if it were the
reductio ad absurdum
of government everywhere
Whole segments of the population are now snared in the trap of government
assistance. Call it "welfare," if you must
but how much of this money increases the actual
welfare of those caught in the cycle of poverty?
Slaves
to the Welfare State: Obviously not everyone in New Orleans is a slave to the welfare state.
But on balance its residents have drifted since 1927 into the entitlements mentality: abandonment of
personal responsibility and individual initiative. The socialist welfare state is a form of slavery, or
more accurately, a sort of neo-feudalism in which the individual has no rights independent of the figurative
"piece of ground" to which the political state has assigned him.
Is It Wrong to Require Work in Exchange for
a Welfare Check?: "It's too bad that Congressman Rangel sees getting something for nothing as
being more noble than having to put in an honest day's work for it," said Project 21 member
Michael King. "As opposed to sitting on their hands and doing nothing, residents are asked to
give a portion of one day in exchange for receiving housing. What's the problem? Oh, I
forget — this gives Congressman Rangel and his compatriots something else to point to
at election time."
Malnourished
Muppets and the Indoctrination of America's Children. After an extended interlude, America finally
has another liberal buzz phrase to add to the country's politically correct vernacular: "Food Insecurity."
Food Insecurity is right up there with "man-caused disaster," not to mention the long, ever-growing list of
'
ities': neutrality, inequality, inequity, accessibility and ethnocentricity.
Helping
Low Income Earners Help Themselves. "The minimum wage is a horrific example of the failure of
politician's good intentions. Several parties are proposing to further worsen unemployment by lifting
the minimum wage up to $15. The Maori party proposes a minimum wage of $16 an hour! It doesn't
take an over-optimistic Treasury forecaster to realise that this artificial wage level will price even more
low skilled labour out of the market and trap more people on the benefit."
Why
Are Republicans Supporting the Farm Bill? The agricultural bills of both chambers of Congress are meant to do two things that fly
against conservative principles. First, about 80% of the Farm Bill is about funding the food stamp program over the next ten years.
Needless to say, the cost to taxpayers for the food stamp program has doubled during the Obama presidency, and is now up to $78 billion
annually. When the Senate was debating its version of the bill, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) observed that, compared to 2008 levels,
the new farm bill will increase spending by 60%. The hike is due to the fact that the new bill incorporates the Obama administration's
baseline spending into entitlement spending forever.
If It Damages
America, It's Good for Democrats. In almost every area of American life, the better
things are, the worse it is for the Democratic Party. [...] The more Americans depend on themselves
or on their family or community, the more likely they are to vote Republican. On the other hand, the
more Americans depend on the government — whether for a job or for economic assistance —
the more likely they are to vote Democrat. Therefore, it is in the Democrats' interest to have more
and more Americans depend on the state.
This is an original
compilation, Copyright © 2024 by Andrew K. Dart
Lies about welfare programs
You
Must Assume That All Information Put Out By Our Government Is Corrupt. Look under my tag for Poverty, and
you will find one post after another detailing how government poverty statistics showing high rates of poverty in the
U.S. are used to support advocacy for increasing programs and funding supposedly to reduce the poverty; and then after
the programs and funding are increased the measured poverty never goes down. We're now up to well over
$1 trillion per year in anti-poverty funding in the U.S. (all levels of government), and the official "poverty
rate" as measured is right around the same place it was when the War on Poverty started back in the 1960s. How is
this possible? The very simple trick is that the government "anti-poverty" funding never gets counted when
official poverty is measured The statistics are very intentionally and cynically manipulated to be misused to advocate
for growing government programs and dependency.
If
you touch these precious leftist concepts, you'll get a screaming fit. [For example,] Homelessness:
Another euphemism, this time for conspicuous vagrancy. Now they're using the term "unhoused," while I prefer "street
bums." The explanation proffered for this sacred cow is a shortage of affordable housing. It just so
happens that all housing is affordable, or else it's vacant. What good is a vacant property to its
owner? Taxes; insurance; and, often, debt service are still being charged. Meanwhile, substance-abusing useless
adults are flocking to the blue cities, particularly those that enjoy mild weather, largely because of the political
nincompoopery that embraces their deplorable condition. Cities have always had skid rows, but this used not to be such
a problem. Even losers had enough of a sense of shame to stay out of sight — eventually, perhaps, even
repairing their lives and moving on. Now it's a protected life style.
Pope
Francis has misguided ideas about global poverty. Certainly many self-described progressives subscribe to the
notion that the rich are always getting richer and the poor are always getting poorer. That includes socialist
torchbearer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has tweeted exactly that. It is, after all, an essential element of their
political creed, used to justify the distribution of wealth between the haves and the have-nots that they intend to carry out
using the coercive power of government. The numbers, however, tell a different tale.
Don't
Believe the UN's Propaganda About 'Extreme Poverty' in the US. Philip Alston, the United Nations' special
rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, recently reported that in the United States, "[a]bout 40 million live in
poverty, 18.5 million in extreme poverty, and 5.3 million live in third-world conditions of absolute poverty."
[...] Such claims do have a veneer of legitimacy, however, because when compiling the U.S. government's official poverty statistics, the
Census Bureau considers only the cash income each family reports in an annual survey. [...] These "official" income figures
exclude substantial off-the-books earnings among low-income households and omit roughly 95 percent of the $1.1 trillion
U.S. taxpayers provide in means-tested cash, food, housing, and medical benefits for low-income persons each year.
UN
poverty report blasting Trump, US for 'hatred for the poor' uses data from last year of Obama's presidency. A recent United
Nations report blasting President Trump and America in general for harboring "contempt" and "hatred for the poor" is based on highly
inaccurate data that can't easily be used to compare the U.S. to other nations. The U.N. report's main contentions read like an
attack on the Trump administration by the Democratic Party: America has 40 million poor people, including 18.5 million
who live in extreme poverty; U.S. policies regarding the poor are "cruel and inhuman;" the Trump tax cuts aren't working and will worsen
inequality; and the U.S. needs to spend less on defense of our nation and more on social programs.
Haley
to Sanders: UN Report Decrying Poverty in America Is 'Ridiculous' and 'Misleading'. [Scroll down]
The United States' "immense wealth and expertise stand in shocking contrast with the conditions in which vast numbers of its
citizens live," the report stated. "About 40 million live in poverty, 18.5 million in extreme poverty, and
5.3 million live in Third World conditions of absolute poverty. It has the highest youth poverty rate in the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the highest infant mortality rates among comparable OECD
States. Its citizens live shorter and sicker lives compared to those living in all other rich democracies, eradicable
tropical diseases are increasingly prevalent, and it has the world's highest incarceration rate, one of the lowest levels of
voter registrations among OECD countries and the highest obesity levels in the developed world." [Philip] Alston
called those stats and policies behind them "cruel and inhuman" and said Trump administration policies seem "driven primarily
by contempt, and sometimes even by hatred for the poor, along with a 'winner takes all' mentality... contempt for the poor
has intensified under the Trump Administration."
The Editor says...
Obviously, if they think so little of us, the United Nations should move its headquarters to a more civilized country.
Despite
What You've Heard, The Senate Bill Doesn't Slash, Gut, Or Even Cut Medicaid. First, the Senate bill doesn't
change Medicaid at all for three years. That means spending on the program will continue to grow, just as it is slated
to now — at an annual 5% clip — until 2021. What does that mean in dollar terms? Under the
Senate's "shredding" reform, Medicaid's budget in 2021 will be $85 billion bigger than it is this year, and $209 billion
(or 79%) bigger than it was in 2013. What about after that? Under the Senate plan, there'd be a three-year transition
to a new way of financing Medicaid. And then, starting in 2025 federal Medicaid spending would be capped each year,
with the cap set to grow at the overall inflation rate.
How
Food Stamps Subverted Democracy, Part 2. I wanted to learn whether the expansion of food programs had
fundamentally improved low-income diets. I had learned how to analyze and interpret the raw data from national
nutrient-intake surveys while running a typing business near Virginia Tech in the late 1970s. Some of my favorite
customers were graduate students in human nutrition and, while typing their term papers and theses, I became familiar with
the methodologies and controversies in evaluating food-aid programs. I visited the USDA to garner the latest
unpublished nutritional data. I went to the Library of Congress and carted armloads of dusty old studies from the
stacks to peruse in the main reading room. I found that government feeding programs had an abysmal nutritional
record. Nor was there any evidence of a dietary golden era during the Carter administration thanks to government
handouts. The reports on the programs' failures had vanished in the Memory Hole. Instead, the government relied
on "body counts" — looking solely at the number of people fed or meals shoveled out. As long as politicians
appeared benevolent, food programs were a roaring success.
Welfare is
the new work. The welfare/entitlement state of mind has spiraled out of control in America. No one is
lifting a finger of opposition. The cost of welfare is now well over $1 trillion a year. Food stamps are so
ubiquitous that they have replaced dollars as the new standard currency in many inner cities in America. Even in affluent
areas with upscale grocery stores, food stamp recipients fill their carts with everything from cakes to lobster. Liberals
love welfare. It was only a few years ago that Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi opined that putting more people on
food stamps and unemployment insurance is one of the "best ways to stimulate the economy." Which is more astonishing?
That she believes this lunacy or that she would be dumb enough to say it out loud.
Transportation
Secretary: Inequitable Distribution of Sidewalks Is Obstacle to American Dream. Transportation Secretary
Anthony Foxx told a crowd in North Carolina Tuesday that "only 49% of low-income neighborhoods have sidewalks" while more
affluent areas have near 90%. In order to have a society where "everyone has a shot at the American Dream, than it's
imperative that we acknowledge these challenges." Foxx made the comments to the Charlotte Rotary Club where he discussed
the ways that infrastructure should connect people to opportunity.
The Editor says...
Opportunities are not confined to the sidewalks in rich neighborhoods.
The
Number Of Americans Living On $2 A Day Or Less Is Zero. There's an interesting new book out talking about how
many Americans are absolutely poor. It's being taken seriously too: the New York Times runs a review of it today.
Sadly, the central premise of the book, $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America is, depending upon how you want
to look at it, either not true or a piece of little more than statistical trickery. [...] For the truth is that there just isn't,
to any reasonable approximation, anyone at all living on less than $2 a day in the United States. Yet the general reaction
to this book is that the authors' estimates of 1.5 million families living in this sort of poverty are true. I'm sorry,
but it simply isn't true. Firstly because of the details of the measures that they're using and secondly because they're not
actually looking at the right measure at all to decide upon living standards.
Obama's
Soothing - And Toxic - Opiate About Entitlements. Speaking at the annual White House
Conference on Aging, the president had nothing but spoonfuls of sugar for the attendees on the
fiscal condition of Social Security and Medicare. "Now, we're often told that Medicare and Social
Security are in crisis. We hear that all the time. And usually, that's used as an excuse to try to
cut spending on those bedrock programs. But here's the truth. Medicare and Social Security are not
in crisis, nor have they kept us from cutting our deficits by two-thirds since I took office," the president
said. He didn't go into details, and probably for good reason: The numbers don't support his claim.
Obama
Blames Rich People Like Him For The Country's Poor. President Obama talked this week
about poverty, a subject he should know a lot about, since he's done such a good job of expanding
it. Instead, he offered only fact-challenged and badly misguided ideas.
Sen.
Debbie Stabenow: SNAP Beneficiaries Who Buy Fruits and Veggies Double Value. "If you
use food assistance," and "you're buying fruits and vegetables for your children, for yourselves,
we'll give you double value," Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) announced on Thursday [3/26/2015] at
the Washington Post's "Changing the Menu" forum in Washington, D.C., focusing on healthy eating and
wellness. "In the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, in SNAP, we have for the first time
taken things that have been done locally, and Michigan I'm proud to say is one of the leaders in
this," said the senator.
Are government
statistics deteriorating? [Nick] Eberstadt decries in particular the government's "hastily devised 'federal
poverty measure' unveiled in 1965," which he characterizes as "not merely a bad yardstick" but "an awful one."
It misstates actual poverty by measuring income rather than consumption (most American lower-income people consume
more than they earn) and is based on an assumption, not wholly unwarranted in 1965 but antique now, that households
spend about one-third of their incomes on food. [...] There's also reason to worry about whether the institutional
culture of the government's statistical agencies — a culture proud of its statistical rigor and freedom
from political influence — is being undermined by the Obama administration.
Poverty Causes Crime?
When people say this, there are only two possibilities. One is that, on some level of consciousness,
they think that if they were poor, they would commit violent crimes. My hunch is that this is often
the case. Just as the whites who say all whites are racist are obviously speaking about themselves,
those who claim that poverty leads to violence may well be speaking about themselves, too. The
other possibility is that they are not speaking about themselves, in which case they would have to
admit that poor Americans who rob, rape or murder are morally inferior to themselves. Which, of
course, happens to be true.
Democrats:
1% Cut In Food Stamp Funding Is "Stealing". Elected Democrats and movement progressives are up in arms over the meager cuts
to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP — commonly known as food stamps). [...] The overall SNAP program costs
$70 billion per year. Hipster congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said "Congress has lost its way" and described the farm bill
as "reverse Robin Hood legislation that steals food from the poor."
Scientists Decide
Americans Are Too Stupid to Understand Global Warming. Welfare states never work because the material needs of society's most
vulnerable will always be a moving target. There will never be enough and for every dollar spent in welfare, there is an equal loss of
freedom and liberty. It will be no different, or better this time around, no matter how appealing it sounds or convincingly it is presented.
Rep.
Sheila Jackson Lee: Change the Word 'Welfare' to 'Transitional Living Fund'. In a brief speech on the House floor
Wednesday [1/8/2014], Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) hailed the war on poverty, endorsed government welfare programs, and said
the "safety net has to be something for all of us." "Maybe the word welfare should be changed to something of, 'a transitional
living fund.' For that is what it is — for people to be able to live," she said.
Government health-care diagnosis:
Dependency. The claim: The United States is the richest nation in the world, and as a matter of decency should pay for the health
care of all Americans who can't afford to pay for their own. The truth: The United States is not the richest nation in the world; we are the
richest debtor nation in the world. We literally owe trillions of dollars — not just in the national debt, but also in unfunded
liabilities for various entitlements.
Pelosi: GOP Failure to Extend
Unemployment Benefits Practically 'Immoral'. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says the Republican refusal to include unemployment
benefits in the Ryan-Murray budget deal is immoral. "It's interesting to note that they rejected unemployment insurance — this is so unconscionable,
it's practically at the level of immoral to do. The people who work hard, play by the rules, lose their job through no fault of their own, are not
able to get — continue to get an unemployment insurance check."
The New York Times' 'homeless' hooey.
If a five-part opus in The New York Times by Andrea Elliott is to believed, we live in a hard-hearted city. But if you read
closely, it suggests just the opposite. Begin with the family at the center of this story. The mother, father and eight
kids aren't really homeless at all. True, they live in housing meant for "homeless families." But their 540-square-foot
unit gives them a solid roof over their heads, in addition to city-provided meals and services.
Food Stamps Fund Left-Wing Media. Not
surprisingly, in recent months Mother Jones has published several odes to food stamps. One, "The Hidden Benefits of Food Stamps," makes
the preposterous claim that food stamps improve the health of Americans and the U.S. economy. The article cites the discredited Keynesian
"multiplier" effect, arguing that every $5 in food stamps generates $9 in economic activity. By this reasoning, America should be able to
spend itself into prosperity if governments add a few more trillion dollars to their welfare programs.
WH: Food Stamps 'Are Boosting the Economy'.
People who depend on the government to buy their food using food stamps are boosting the economy, the White House says. A Thanksgiving message
posted on the White House website says the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — AKA food stamps — helps millions
of Americans put food on the table and keeps millions out of poverty. In the last five years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
the number of Americans on food stamps has gone up 67.7 percent.
Obama: 'We're Not Lavishly
Spending on a Whole Bunch of Social Programs'. President Obama told a gathering of business executives on Tuesday [11/19/2013] that
the federal government was not "lavishly spending" on social programs. "What we know is, is that our — our fiscal problems are
not short-term deficits. Our discretionary budget, that portion of the federal budget that isn't defense or Social Security or Medicare or
Medicaid, the entitlement programs, is at its smallest level in my lifetime, probably since Dwight Eisenhower.["]
Food Security Junk Science. With the release of the USDA's
latest report on household food security in the United States, we get another example of junk science, government largesse, and a social engineering Trojan
horse. [...] Apparently, "children were food insecure at times during the year in 10.0 percent of households with children. These 3.9 million
households were unable at times during the year to provide adequate, nutritious food for their children." Where does this data come from? Unaudited
voluntary population surveys. This means the underlying data cannot be verified and may be subject to significant bias.
The Myth of Red State Welfare. During the last few years,
a key liberal talking point has been "red state welfare." The argument is that the states that get more from the federal government than they pay in taxes
tend to be red states, whereas the states that give more to the federal government than they pay in taxes tend to be blue states. This "red state welfare"
hypothesis falls completely apart when we look at the data.
First Lady:
Barack's Working to Free Americans from 'Any Form of Public Assistance'. In an e-mail to supporters, First Lady Michelle Obama
says she grew up in a family that didn't need help from the government, and that her husband is working to make Americans free from dependence on
government once again. [... But] The Obama Administration's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has arranged to pay a public relations
firm $8 million to promote dependence on government-run health care — enrollment in ObamaCare's health insurance exchanges.
In Pennsylvania alone, HHS is spending $4 million to promote Obamacare at state health clinics.
How The Welfare State Stole Christmas.
"We Could End Homelessness With The Money Americans Spend On Christmas Decorations," announces a headline from Think Progress blogger Adam Peck. [...]
According to Peck, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development says it could end "homelessness" if only its annual budget to fight the problem
ballooned from $1.9 billion to $20 billion. That's dubious — financial reasons seldom account for why a person ends up
living on the street or under a bridge.
President
Unleashes a Nationwide 'Community Organizing' Campaign. Mr. Obama's recurring mantra is that he will focus on the "needs
of the middle class," yet every single day nearly 12,000 people are added to the food stamp program, food and gas prices escalate,
we are distributing billions of dollars worth of "Obama phones" to millions who do not qualify as needy, and we now have a record number
of people who are declared "disabled." That is not expanding the middle class or meeting the needs of the middle class.
Newark Mayor Cory
Booker: $80.4B Food Stamp Program 'Not a Government Handout'. Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker says the federal government's
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps), which spent $80.4 billion in fiscal 2012, is "not a government handout."
"I hope and understand that people are getting a better recognition that this is a program that really helps America, helps families in need,"
Booker said on Friday, while describing his fourth day of living on a SNAP budget.
Not
News: Food Stamp Participation Jumped by Over 600,000 in September; Last Pre-Election Number Revised Up. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture released its latest report on food stamp program participation through September today [12/7/2012]. I received the email
alerting me to the release at 5:17 p.m., so it seems reasonable to believe that USDA and the Barack Obama administration wanted the new
data to get as little attention as possible. If so, they have two probable reasons for wishing to minimize its impact.
Schumer: Jobless Benefits 'The Best Stimulus
There Is'. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that extending long-term unemployment benefits would be the "best stimulus there
is" for the economy, saying it would create the most jobs for the money. "At the end of last year, there were 5 million people
receiving emergency UI [unemployment insurance]. This year, there are only 2 million. It's working," Schumer said at a
press conference Thursday [12/6/2012].
The Editor says...
Paying people not to work is an incentive to stay home, not an incentive to get a job.
Federal
Entitlements Prevent U.S. From Being Third World Country, Lawmaker Says. Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) chided Republican
efforts to reform entitlements during a floor speech Tuesday [12/4/2012], saying certain federal programs prevent the United States
from being a third world country.
The Editor says...
Exactly the opposite is true, of course. Massive spending on unconstitutional payments to individuals is building the national debt
at an (apparently) uncontrollable rate.
Kirsten
Powers: 'Complete and Utter Myth' That Illegal Aliens Receive Welfare, Other Benefits. Illegal immigrants get little in the way of
welfare or other taxpayer-funded largesse, according to Kirsten Powers. And she's adamant about it. The liberal columnist and Fox News
contributor appeared on Geraldo Rivera's KABC radio show out of Los Angeles yesterday [8/23/2012], at the same time Rivera invited GOP strategist
George Ajjan.
Hoyer: Food Stamps,
Unemployment Insurance are the two 'Most Stimulative' Things for Economy. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday [7/17/2012]
that food stamps and unemployment insurance are the two "most stimulative" things you can do for the economy. During a pen and pad
briefing with reporters on Capitol Hill, Hoyer was asked if any Democrats are "reconsidering the wisdom" of letting the Bush tax cuts
expire at year's end for the top income earners given the still struggling U.S. economy.
Feds
Encourage Food Stamps: Helps Local Economies, 'Everyone Wins'. The federal government has been making the case that,
with food stamps, "everyone wins," according to literature meant to promote the federal social welfare program. The
argument is that accepting food stamp benefits helps to promote economic growth for the communities hosting those recipients.
"Each $5 dollars in new SNAP benefits generates almost twice that amount in economic activity for the community," states the federal
government pamphlet.
The Editor says...
If that were true, and it isn't, we should all be on food stamps.
A Political Glossary. [Scroll
down] People who make no provision to feed themselves, but expect others to provide food for them, are those whom politicians
and the media refer to as "the hungry." Those who meet this definition may have money for alcohol, drugs or even various electronic
devices. And many of them are overweight. But, if they look to voluntary donations, or money taken from the taxpayers, to
provide them with something to eat, then they are "the hungry."
SNAP Questions & Suggested Answers.
Read the government propaganda for yourself: "
Everyone wins when eligible people take advantage of benefits to which they are
entitled."
The Editor says...
That's a lie. Everyone receiving the benefits is dependent on Big Brother, and the rest of us have money taken from our wages,
under threat of imprisonment, to be given to the shiftless parasites who will probably find a way to spend the money on beer and
cigarettes.
Liberals and Magical Math.
Nancy Pelosi has made what could quite possibly be the most imbecilic utterances ... regarding job creation
and stimulating the economy:
• Unemployment benefits "injects demand into the economy."
• Unemployment benefits "is a job creator."
• "Unemployment insurance, the economists tell us, return $2 for every $1 that is put
out there for unemployment insurance."
• It creates jobs to help reduce the deficit.
• "This is one of the biggest stimuluses to our economy. Economists will tell you this
money is spent quickly. It injects demand into the economy, and is job creating."
• Unemployment insurance "creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name
because, again, it is money that is needed for families to survive, and it is spent. So it has a double
benefit. It helps those who have lost their jobs, but it also is a job creator."
• "It is the biggest bang for the buck when you do food stamps and
unemployment insurance. The biggest bang for the buck."
We should all use food stamps. That would solve everything!
Obama Agriculture
Secretary: Food Stamps Create Jobs. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack repeated the White House
claim that food stamps and other forms of government welfare are stimulus programs in disguise, stating that
when government gives out money, it is creating jobs.
Obama
Ag Secretary Vilsack: Food Stamps Are A Stimulus. Obama's Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack:
"Well, obviously, it's putting people to work. ... I should point out, when you talk about the SNAP
program or the foot stamp program, you have to recognize that it's also an economic stimulus. Every dollar
of SNAP benefits generates $1.84 in the economy in terms of economic activity. If people are able to buy
a little more in the grocery store, someone has to stock it, package it, shelve it, process it, ship it.
All of those are jobs. It's the most direct stimulus you can get in the economy during these tough times."
Gingrich:
"Obama Is The Most Successful Food Stamp President In American History". ["]We need a program
to put 14 million Americans back to work. We are committed to creating jobs. The Democrats
are committed to killing jobs. You decide which future you want, paychecks or food stamps?["]
Obama's
charity state. President Obama made a big to-do about a big speech about his allegedly
big new plan to reduce the really big deficit and fix the country the way a president is supposed to.
Predictably, he dusted off old far-left mantras as tired as Joe Biden at an Obama speech, spouting yet
again that the way to end deficits is to raise taxes. The rhetoric on the left is getting more
shrill by the minute, with accusations of Republicans wanting to "steal" from poor people, women and
senior citizens. Yes — "steal" — as if there is money that is theirs and
mean old Republicans want to break into their homes in the middle of the night and lift it from their
wallets.
Nancy Pelosi: A Ruler of
Fools. Nancy Pelosi doesn't have much longer as Speaker of the House. But if there's one
constant in our ever-changing world, it's that Pelosi will remain unconscionable until the gavel is wrested
from her hand. During a recent speech on the House floor, she expressed opinions about unemployment
insurance and tax policy that seem irrational even for her. Pelosi supports extending unemployment
insurance beyond the current 99-week limit. To substantiate her position, she touted unemployment
benefits as a burgeoning economic catalyst. All we need do is and tap into their power. Pelosi
informed Congress that "[u]nemployment insurance ... returns two dollars for every one dollar that is put out
there." A two-dollar return for every one invested is a lofty promise.
Black
Republican: Black Caucus preaches victimization and dependency. Congressman-elect Allen West
(R-Fla.), who said he plans to become the only black Republican in the Congressional Black Caucus, accused
the organization of failing the black community by promoting dependence on government welfare programs.
"The Congressional Black Caucus cannot continue to be a monolithic voice that promotes these liberal social
welfare policies and programs that are failing in the Black community, that are preaching victimization and
dependency, that's not the way that we should go," West said on Fox News Friday [11/19/2010].
Why
Do Blacks Still Buy The Government Plantation Lie? Blacks still by and large see government dependence as the
remedy rather than the disease, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. They still choose to listen to left wing
black political leadership and media who have careers in keeping it all going. Consider that it was welfare state
government policies that caused this economic collapse to begin with. And that it was community activist groups
claiming to represent the interests of minorities who lobbied for these policies.
Obama Battles Reagan.
Every major Obama initiative from Obamanomics to ObamaCare is inevitably attempting to transform America just
as Obama promised: taking the prosperous America Ronald Reagan saw as The Shining City Upon a Hill and
turning it into a Society of Beggars. Sending Americans begging — literally. Turning
Reagan's "Morning in America" into what Rush Limbaugh has termed Obama's endless Dark Night of the Soup Kitchen.
All of this based on the idea that building the American economy (or for that matter any economy), as House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said, must be done based on the philosophy that "the biggest bang for the buck [comes]
when you do food stamps and unemployment insurance — the biggest bang for the buck." This is, of
course, straight from Marx.
Pelosi
Advocates Food Stamps to Help Economy. Seriously. There is a great danger here. What
she's talking about is right out of Karl Marx's socialist playbook. Allegedly a devout Catholic who somehow
manages to get around the Church's stand on baby killing via legalized abortion, she has ignored the
warnings of numerous popes about socialism.
Poverty
Is Up, Crime Is Down. Is That Possible? [Scroll down] Here is a curious thing about that
increasing poverty, though — and it's something that has received very little press attention:
It has not resulted in a higher crime rate. In fact, according to the FBI, even as unemployment was
spiking during 2009, the rate of murders, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults declined by 4.4 percent
compared with the previous year. As even the Washington Post acknowledged, the conventional wisdom for
many decades has been that "economic trouble breeds lawlessness."
Poverty and the Democrats.
The Associated Press reports that Census Bureau data due next week will show a record increase in the poverty
rate. ... The Democrats, of course, are like the arsonist who works for the fire department. They will
argue that soaring poverty demands more government spending.
Words
sugarcoat politicians' bad ideas. [Scroll down] Take the simple phrase "rent control."
If you take these words literally — as if they were money in the bank — you get a
complete distortion of reality. New York is the city with the oldest and strongest rent control laws in
the nation. San Francisco is second. But if you look at cities with the highest average rents,
New York is first and San Francisco is second. Obviously, "rent control" laws do not control rent.
A country of 'third
rails'. Since the inception of Social Security, there has been an unspoken rule in politics:
When campaigning for national office or running for re-election, a candidate could never pledge to touch, cut
spending for, dismantle, or otherwise look crossways at Social Security unless it was to raise the payouts to
its recipients. Social Security has always been referred to as the "third rail" in politics. You simply
never touch it. It would now appear that the US is riddled with a plethora of untouchable third rails
and holy grails.
Expansion of the welfare state disguised
as environmentalism.
Earth Day: An Assault
on Man. [Scroll down] The American Clean Energy and Security Act passed by the House proposes
green economic schemes that should frighten us greatly. For example, buried on pages 1014-1016 of the
bill is the "Monthly Energy Refund." According to this trick, for those with a gross income that "does
not exceed 150 percent of the poverty line ... a direct deposit" of an undisclosed amount of money will be
sent "into the eligible household's designated bank account[.]" On pages 502-503 we find the "Low Income
Community Energy Efficiency Program," whereby grants will be issued "to increase the flow of capital and
benefits to low income communities, minority-owned and woman-owned businesses and entrepreneurs[.]"
Obama's Quiet War on
Red States. [Scroll down slowly] The admonition goes that the poor will always be among us,
but today's poor needn't become a permanent underclass, which has happened in big cities, especially those in
blue states (think Newark, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Detroit). These poor — mostly black and
Hispanic — are the prisoners of big-city Democratic machines, which, allied with leaders in minority and
poor communities, have stymied the "up and out" dynamic that was once a feature of poverty in America.
The poor are always with today's Democrats because in exchange for subsidizing the poor, Democrats get whole
blocs of votes in return — votes that perpetuate their political power.
The Welfare State of
America. Even before Obamacare and this year's spending increases take effect, Americans have to
accept that our government already has gotten to be as big as the biggest welfare states. Socialism is not
just somebody else's problem anymore.
President Obama Makes
Poverty Permanent. If "poverty" is defined as earning less than 75% of other people (or 60%, or
whatever number you like) then the poor will always be with us and there is nothing anybody can do to change
this. Omnipotence itself cannot change this. Yet President Obama thinks he can. ... How? His
administration will create a new index of poverty, one which slides upwards as all income increases. This
guarantees "poverty" will always be with us. This act of will creates an eternal class of the "poor"
from which there can be no relief.
Let It Burn. If Republicans
take control of the House and Senate, and if they repeal the health care bill, then they will not be able (or
likely even try) to reform Medicare or Social Security. These programs alone will bankrupt our nation.
Yet they are untouchable because a large number of Americans have come to depend upon these benefits. They
have become unknowingly hooked.
What
It's Really About: Insurance Reform Was Never About Health Care. Past liberal administrations
began the march toward socialization, expanding government control and provision, demonizing capitalism, and
shifting responsibility away from individuals and onto government. ObamaCare will take its place in the
liberal cavalcade of massive government growth initiatives alongside Welfare, Social Security, and a multitude
of entitlement programs. Democrat Senator Dick Durbin said the massive taxes and vast expansion of
government required to run the program would simply be, "The cost... of having the kind of America we want to
have." What kind of America was he referring to?
Ignorance is strength and...
Food Stamps Are Not Welfare.
With the help of the statist media, Big Government is making progress in its drive to corrode our culture to
the point that dependence on coercively funded handouts is both socially acceptable and ubiquitous.
Michelle
Obama, Liberal Government and Obesity: First Lady, Michelle Obama, has decided to take a whack at
solving the American obesity epidemic. Splendid. She should start by looking at one of the biggest
roots of the problem: liberal government and its most favorite project of the past 40 years, the
welfare state.
Recession Shatters
Myth of Poverty Causing Crime. The sound you should be hearing right now is that of a myth
exploding. And given the long duration and wide acceptance of this myth, the noise should indeed be
deafening. But, no, as when many cherished notions of the left are revealed as fallacious, the current
reaction is a hushed, embarrassed silence.
Texas'
program for food stamps called the worst. Texas has the worst-performing food stamp program
in the nation, the federal director for food assistance told state officials here Tuesday. It ranks
last among the 50 states and U.S. territories in processing food stamp applications and also does a
poor job getting eligible low-income people to apply, Kevin Concannon, a U.S. Department of Agriculture
undersecretary, said in an earlier meeting with reporters.
The Editor says...
That's great news! Why should the state encourage people to apply for welfare?
Crisis of the Government
Party. Democrats are the Party of Government. They feed it, and it feeds them. The larger
government grows, the more agencies that are created, the more bureaucrats who are hired, the more people who become
beneficiaries, the more deeply entrenched in power the Party of Government becomes. At the local, state and
federal level, there are 19 million to 20 million government employees. And if one takes only Social
Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and earned income tax credits, we are talking of scores of millions who
depend on government checks for the necessities of their daily life.
12 Policies that Undermine Civil Society.
[#1] Massive Expansion of the Welfare State. Within his first two years in office, President Obama will
have increased spending on means-tested programs for the poor by 30 percent, and over the next decade he
will spend $10.3 trillion on welfare programs alone. These are programs such as food stamps, Medicaid,
housing, and Head Start that are targeted at low-income people. In addition to increased spending, the
President and Congress are widening eligibility for the programs so that more people will qualify.
Government-sponsored welfare programs do little to actually help move families from a position of dependence
to self-sufficiency.
The Fruits of Labor. We now
have a government that considers it public policy to take from those who are productive and give to those who they believe
are less productive (or unproductive). Although this is nothing new with respect to politics, it is more blatant
now than at any other time in our history.
The
Myth that Liberals Care About the Poor: Almost every program the Left supports to "help" the
poor in this country is surreptitiously designed to de-motivate them and keep them dependent on the
government. The Left saps their will to work with welfare and food stamps, the Left reduces their
income and puts them out of jobs by encouraging illegal aliens to enter the country, and the Left fights
voucher programs that would allow poverty-stricken students to go to the same schools as the rich
Americans. Liberals incessantly ramble on about how much they care about the poor — and
they do, the same way a Venus Flytrap cares about a random bug that happens to fly into its maw.
Poverty?
It's just a lie the Left uses to destroy the middle class. The propaganda gives it away. Those ridiculous
claims about abolishing child poverty are a huge warning sign. Why 'child' poverty, by the way? It's partly to
make us all go gooey and say 'aah'. It's also because the children in our most deprived households have no
responsibility at all for the conditions they live in. But the Government does, by encouraging the creation
of single-parent families on welfare.
Cap-and-Tax:
Government vs. America. There is still time to stop the legislative monstrosity known as the Waxman-Markey
cap-and-trade bill before the Senate approves it. But for that to happen, Americans must learn how bad it is. ... As
noted, the bill contains a hidden provision establishing unemployment benefits for up to three full years for workers
displaced as a result of this "job creations" bill, as well as health insurance premium subsidies and $1,500 each for job
search and relocation expenses — all at taxpayers' expense.
Social
service advocates predict disaster if budget cut. Armageddon, disaster, nightmare, obscene,
devastating. Those are just a few of the words some people use to describe the fallout if deep cuts in
Illinois' budget become a reality. "This budget would be a disaster. We are talking about
decimating programs that help the most vulnerable," said Diana Rauner, spokeswoman for the Ounce of
Prevention Fund, a poverty relief organization.
Obama's Stimulus:
LBJ's Great Society welfare was probably the worst of all liberal policies because it was directly responsible
for destroying marriage by subsidizing illegitimacy and divorce, thereby creating a matriarchy dependent on
government handouts. It wasn't poverty that destroyed marriage in the lower-income classes, it was the
liberal policy of giving taxpayers' money to women, thereby making the husband and father irrelevant and even
an impediment to the flow of easy money. By setting limits on government handouts, the 1996 welfare
reform encouraged welfare recipients to get jobs or job training, to make themselves self-sufficient and to
end their long-term dependency on government. The Obama stimulus plan increases the taxpayers' money
that the federal government gives to the states for welfare, and reverses incentives by giving bonuses to
states that put more people on welfare.
Gospel
of dependence from National Urban League. Shouldn't it embarrass black Americans that one the
nation's largest and most prestigious civil rights organizations offers a long list of proposals to improve
black life in our country, and every single proposal is a government program? ... There's not a single
proposal that I could find in a several hundred-page report about improving black life that does not start
with government. The civil rights movement once was about freedom and liberation. Now it's about
government dependency. We should be ashamed.
Why
Team Obama Hates Poor People. Democrats, and the progressive left in particular, exploit the
poor, they use the poor, they write speeches about them, and manipulate their "unrepresented voices" in
debates. But one thing is increasingly clear from the Obama administration and the popular left
in America, they don't have any interest in helping them.
Top 10
Poverty Cities: What do the top 10 cities with the highest poverty rates all have in common?
1. Detroit, MI... hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1961;
2. Buffalo, NY... hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1954;
3. Cincinnati, OH... hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1984;
4. Cleveland, OH... hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1989;
5. Miami, FL... has never had a Republican mayor;
6. St. Louis, MO... hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1949;
7. El Paso, TX... has never had a Republican mayor;
8. Milwaukee, WI... hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1908;
9. Philadelphia, PA... hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1952;
10. Newark, NJ... hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1907.
The Editor asks...
Do poor people reflexively elect Democrats to avoid being cut off from public assistance, or
do Democrats actively encourage people to be dependent on big government? I think both.
The poverty of Democrats' ideas for
cities: Perhaps nothing illustrates that better than what's been happening in Detroit, Michigan,
and Buffalo, New York. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly a third of the residents in those
cities are living beneath the poverty line, the highest rates among large cities in the entire country. ... Detroit,
whose mayor has been indicted on felony charges, hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1961. Buffalo
has been even more stubborn. It started putting a Democrat in office back in 1954, and it hasn't stopped
since.
The Magic of Barack
Obama. [Scroll down] Ten out of 10 radicals surveyed agree that America must be remade
via spreading the wealth around. That means confiscating increasingly more money from society's
hard-working wage earners and job producers and redistributing or "reinvesting" the booty in liberal
programs and bureaucracies. No matter that the welfare state has been an abject failure, having
destroyed the traditional family and shipwrecked tens of millions of lives. "The welfare system just
needs more taxpayer money and then it will finally succeed," dreams the radical left.
Priceless politics: Among the
many rationales used to defend the welfare state, the most powerful is that it is necessary, in order to take
care of the poor and the downtrodden. But the amount of money required to bring every poor person in the
country above the official poverty line is a fraction of what is spent by government on the welfare state.
Not Everyone Should Own a Home.
Maybe only a friendly foreigner could say this. But America needs to realize that not everyone can own
a home. The American Dream of home ownership for all is a fraud. Politicians who pimped this
dream created an unsustainable mortgage industry whose collapse is only surprising because it didn't happen
earlier. America's mortgage industry will not recover, nor deserve to recover, unless it is prepared
to challenge this politically unpalatable reality.
Houston Zoo will offer free
admission to poor. Despite record crowds, officials with the Houston Zoo are looking for ways
to attract more low-income families. Starting Aug. 1, families that use the Lone Star card to
receive food stamps and other benefits will have unlimited free admission for themselves and up to eight
others.
The Editor asks the obvious question...
How will that help the poor improve their situation?
A poor way to measure poverty.
The official poverty measure counts only monetary income. It considers anti-poverty programs such as food
stamps, housing assistance, the Earned Income Tax Credit, Medicaid and school lunches, among others,
"in-kind benefits" — and hence not income. So, despite everything these programs do to relieve poverty,
they aren't counted as income when Washington measures the poverty rate.
Poverty Does
Not Cause Crime. In all my years covering court, I don't ever recall a defence lawyer claiming
that his or her client committed a particular crime because of poverty. All sorts of explanations crop
up during sentencing submissions, including addiction, mental illness, childhood abuse and abysmal coping
skills. Defence lawyers, however, do not pin their hopes for a light sentence on the poverty-causes-crime
argument. It's untrue and judges won't buy it.
Barack Obama reverses the welfare reform law of 1996
Medicaid and the Democratic
War on Work. And yet there can be little doubt that the Democratic Party has somehow morphed into the
anti-employment party. The evidence for this is pretty difficult to miss. The Obama era, despite a deluge of
disingenuous media reports about the allegedly heroic role our erstwhile president played in "saving" the economy, was
characterized by countless initiatives clearly meant to reduce employment growth to the anemic level that Obama himself
called the "new normal." A clear sign that he intended to take every action possible to render this sluggish job growth
permanent was his disembowelment of Clinton-era work requirements for welfare recipients. And, in keeping with their
war on work, the Democrats and the media produced the usual claims of racism and cruelty when President Trump reversed his
predecessor's anti-employment and illegal changes to the 1996 welfare reform law.
Did
Welfare Reform Increase Extreme Poverty in the United States? Two decades ago, on August 22, 1996, President
Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, popularly known as welfare reform, into law.
At the time, liberals proclaimed that the bill would slash the incomes of one in five families with children and push 2.6 million
people into poverty. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously predicted that the bill would leave children scavenging in the
streets, "sleeping on grates, picked up in the morning frozen." In fact, reform cut welfare caseloads by over 50 percent,
employment of the least-skilled single mothers surged, and the poverty rates of black children and single-parent families dropped rapidly
to historic lows. Doomsday prophets were utterly discredited. Reform was very popular with the public. Remarkably,
20 years later, Moynihan's alarm about "children sleeping on grates" has been revived.
Obama
edict repealed 1996 welfare reform's work requirement. When the Republican Congress
and Democratic President Bill Clinton reformed welfare in 1996, among the many changes was to add a
work requirement to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as food
stamps. Liberals always hated the work requirement, and the stimulus was a perfect opportunity to
repeal it. The results have been entirely predictable. A 2012 Congressional Research Service
report found that the number of able-bodied American adults on food stamps has more than doubled, from
1.9 million in 2008 to 3.9 million in 2010.
Obama edict repealed 1996 welfare reform's work requirement.
There were plenty of reasons why President Obama's $787 trillion economic stimulus bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of
2009, received no Republican votes in the House of Representatives. But one rarely mentioned reason was tucked away in the more
than 1,000 pages of crony capitalist spending — a provision ending the work requirement for the food stamp program.
5 Ways Obama Has Trampled the
Constitution. [#4] Waiving welfare work requirements: In July 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services
gutted the work requirements out of the welfare reform law passed in 1996. It notified states of Secretary Kathleen Sebelius's
"willingness to exercise her waiver authority" so that states may eliminate the work participation requirement of Section 407 of
the 1996 reforms. This flatly contradicts the law, which provides that waivers granted under other sections of the law "shall not
affect the applicability of section 407 to the State." Despite this unambiguous language, the Obama Administration continues
to flout the law with its "revisionist" interpretation.
Welfare: Obama Wanted to Gut
Work Requirements in 2009. President Obama had been seeking ways to circumvent the 1996 welfare work requirements since
coming to office, according to a 2009 memo released Tuesday [5/7/2013] by Representative David Camp (R-MI) and Senator Orrin Hatch
(R-UT). "From the first year the Obama Administration took power, it was trying to find any legal and policy justification to
permit the weakening of welfare reforms that demand work in exchange for government benefits," said Hatch in a press release on
Tuesday [5/7/2013]. "They used states' desire for flexibility as a stalking horse to justify this massive executive branch
power grab." Last July, Obama's Department of Health and Human Services released an official policy directive effectively
gutting work requirements from the successful welfare reform of 1996.
Food
stamp rolls explode after Obama loosens rules. You will recall that during the last election there was a big controversy
over whether the Obama administration had acted to "gut" — to use the Romney campaign's term — the work requirements
under welfare reform. [...] The programs have simply been made more efficient, the White House argued. If by "more efficient" the Obama team meant getting
unprecedented numbers of people on the rolls and keeping them there longer by relaxing the old rules, then, yes, the administration's
reforms have been a roaring success.
Obama's Latest Political Slander.
During the Obama years, in fact, the ranks of America's poor have climbed to levels unseen in nearly half a century. In addition, Obama
was opposed to the 1996 welfare reform bill, which was arguably the single best policy reform to help poor Americans, and his administration
has taken steps to weaken welfare work requirements. Yet the president feels like he's in a position to lecture Republicans about caring
for the most vulnerable members of the human community.
Obama's Palace Guard. [Scroll down] This
isn't a closely guarded secret. Key personnel under Sebelius at HHS have a lengthy track record of opposing the 1996 welfare reform.
Doug Steiger, for example, the deputy assistant secretary for legislation for human services at HHS, plays a significant role in shaping Obama
administration welfare policy. Rector notes that Steiger used to work for Max Baucus, the Senate Finance Committee chairman, "and when TANF was
going to be reauthorized in 2002, they put up a bill that manifestly had no federal work requirements in it at all. And he was very
explicit that was their goal — there were to be no federal work requirements."
Welfare Reform as We Knew It. It's hard to remember now,
but this summer Mitt Romney opened a useful debate about "dependency" — concerning President Obama's regulation to rewrite the 1996 welfare reform.
Democrats deny any such intent, but as early as this week the House plans to hold a vote to override the new rule. So it's a good moment to dissect what the
Administration is really trying to do, because in this case Mr. Romney is right: The Administration has made welfare's work requirements far weaker, and for
ideological reasons that the press corps has failed to report.
CRS
report: number of able-bodied adults on food stamps doubled after Obama suspended work requirement. Obama administration
officials have insisted that their decision to grant states waivers to redefine work requirements for welfare recipients would not "gut"
the landmark 1996 welfare reform law. But a new report from the Congressional Research Service obtained by the Washington Examiner
suggests that the administration's suspension of a separate welfare work requirement has already helped explode the number of able-bodied
Americans on food stamps.
Media
Blackout: GAO Says Obama's Welfare Waivers Illegal. On Sept. 4, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) made a startling
assertion saying that Obama circumvented the law when he summarily waived the work requirements in the welfare law. Perhaps not as
shocking, few news outlets seem interested in the story.
Obama Administration
Welfare Waivers Violated Law, GAO Finds. Did the Obama administration, in waiving work requirements for welfare recipients,
violate the law? According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress' investigative arm, the answer is yes.
In response to a request from Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.),
chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the GAO examined whether the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) July 12
Information Memorandum concerning the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program violated the Congressional Review Act (CRA).
How
Obama has gutted welfare reform. The 1996 welfare reform law required that a portion of the able-bodied adults in the
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program — the successor to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children
program — work or prepare for work. Those work requirements were the heart of the reform's success: Welfare
rolls dropped by half, and the poverty rate for black children reached its lowest level in history in the years following. But
the Obama administration has jettisoned the law's work requirements, asserting that, in the future, no state will be required to follow
them. In place of the legislated work requirements, the administration has stated, it will unilaterally design its own "work" systems
without congressional involvement or consent. Any state will be free to follow the new Obama requirements "in lieu of" the
written statute.
Gutting Welfare
Reform: Ending Welfare as We Know It. Today, the federal government operates nearly 80 welfare programs at a total cost
to state and local governments that is approaching $1 trillion annually. Now the Obama Administration is attempting to boost
government dependence by removing work requirements from one of only two welfare programs that include work requirements. [...] The
Obama Administration's directive strangles welfare reform and threatens the principle of personal responsibility. Instead of
rolling back welfare reform, work requirements should be strengthened in TANF and added to programs like food stamps and public
housing to help those in need become self-reliant and free from government dependence.
Welfare Reform's Work
Requirements Cannot be Waived. Under the guise of providing states greater "flexibility" in operating their welfare
programs, the Obama Administration now claims the authority to weaken or waive the work requirements that are at the heart of welfare
reform. But Congress intended that those requirements be absolutely mandatory in all instances and specifically withheld any authority
to weaken or waive them. Waiving the work requirements that are at the center of the 1996 welfare reform is not only terrible
policy, but also a violation of the President's constitutional obligation to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed."
No wonder I'm so tired. I've been working two jobs!
New York Times Fact
Checkers: Bed Rest Is Work! The non-Fox media have formed a solid front in denouncing Romney's welfare
ad for daring to point out that Obama has gutted the work requirements of the 1996 welfare reform bill. The New York Times
claims that Romney's ad "falsely" charges Obama with eliminating work requirements. CNN rates the ad "false."
Underemployed hack Howard Fineman says Romney's ad "is just flat out wrong on the facts" and "that every fair analyst, every
fact checker" has said it's "just factually wrong." When a campaign ad induces this much hysteria, you know Romney has
struck gold.
Obama Sabotages Welfare Reform. Obama's
goal, as he has said, is to "fundamentally transform the United States" and to "spread the wealth" to produce more dependency on government. As he
probably learned at the Socialist Workers conference he attended while at Columbia, and then as a student of Chicago radical Saul Alinsky, the best way to do
that is to load more people onto the welfare rolls. In gutting the Republican welfare reform, Obama ignored the fact that the work requirement written
into the TANF law is "mandatory." He just went ahead and issued a waiver anyway, claiming it is OK under Section 1115 of the Social Security Act.
However, the TANF law states that waivers cannot be issued unless they are specifically listed in Section 1115. Welfare's "work" requirement" is not
listed.
Obama Ends Welfare
Reform As We Know It. Welfare reform replaced the old Aid to Families with Dependent Children with a new program,
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The underlying concept of welfare reform was that able-bodied adults
should be required to work or prepare for work as a condition of receiving welfare aid. The welfare reform law was
very successful. In the four decades prior to welfare reform, the welfare caseload never experienced a significant
decline. But, in the four years after welfare reform, the caseload dropped by nearly half. Employment surged
and child poverty among blacks and single mothers plummeted to historic lows. What was the catalyst for these
improvements? Rigorous new federal work requirements contained in TANF.
Obama
Ends Welfare Reform as We Know It, Calls for $12.7 Trillion in New Welfare Spending. Last Thursday [7/12/2012], the
Obama Administration quietly issued new bureaucratic rules that overturned the popular welfare reform law of 1996. This was an
illegal move, and it completely undoes years of progress that helped millions of Americans. The 1996 reform replaced the old Aid
to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with a new program called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). At
the core of the TANF program were new federal work standards that required able-bodied welfare recipients to work, prepare for work,
or at least look for work as a condition for receiving aid. Welfare reform turned "welfare" into "workfare."
Obama is buying his reelection, one entitlement at a time.
Food stamps for votes.
Welfare to work is the cornerstone of a reform passed in 1996 by a Republican Congress and signed by Bill Clinton.
The Obama administration on Thursday [7/12/2012] announced it was taking steps to gut this landmark law. The
theory behind welfare reform was people on government assistance not only should work towards getting a job but
actually want one. The law is credited with shrinking the welfare caseload by over 2.8 million, making
them productive members of society.
Obama takes the Work out of Welfare.
Yesterday afternoon [7/12/2012], President Obama's Department of Health and Human Services issued a directive effectively
waiving work requirements that have been the fundamental component of the 1996 welfare reform law. The law, hailed by
both Republicans and Democrats as an extremely successful piece of legislation, cut the number of people on welfare in half.
'Add
Welfare Reform to List of Laws Obama Refuses to Follow'. The Obama administration today [7/12/2012] issued a
waiver for work requirements under the 1996 welfare reform law, prompting the chairman of the conservative caucus in the
House to accuse the president of "hurting the very people he claims to help." Health and Human Services Secretary
Kathleen Sebelius sent an "information memorandum" to states this afternoon exercising waiver authority under the Social
Security Act for the provision that "parents and caretakers receiving assistance under the [Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF)] program engage in work activities."
The Editor says...
What percentage of the people receiving "Temporary Assistance for Needy Families" are actually
needy, and receiving
the money
temporarily, and part of an actual
family?
Obama,
after gutting welfare reform: Americans can't be looking for handouts'. "Americans can't be looking for handouts,"
Obama said during a campaign stop in Virginia. "There are some folks you can't help if they're not willing to help themselves."
Moments later, he invoked former President Clinton as a model for economic leadership: "Bill Clinton did it, and we ended up
having 23 million new jobs," Obama added. But he was referring to Clinton's tax policy, not the welfare reform bill
undermined by his Department of Health and Human Services yesterday [7/12/2012].
White House approved reversal of
welfare reform. Both OMB and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius approved the new rules,
Kenneth Wolfe, the department's deputy director of public affairs, told The Daily Caller. The department will not be
holding a press conference about the rules, which remove a core element of the successful reform that halved the taxpayers'
welfare caseload.
Republicans
accuse HHS of gutting welfare reform with quiet policy change. Republicans are accusing the Obama
administration of unilaterally gutting welfare reform after the Department of Health and Human Services quietly
notified states that they may seek a waiver for the program's strict work requirements. HHS made the
announcement in a policy memo Thursday [7/12/2012], news that slipped well below the radar amid a raucous day
on the presidential campaign trail. But a few prominent GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill picked up on the
change, and accused the administration of overhauling one of the most important bipartisan agreements of the
past several decades.
Obama hacks away at America's foundation.
Barack Obama's out of control presidency plunged deeper into outlaw territory this past week. Obama's lawless band gutted the nation's
successful 1996 welfare reform law by issuing a bureaucratic directive that (illegally) does away with the work requirement at the heart of the
bipartisan reform adopted under Bill Clinton's presidency. The directive, issued by Obama's Department of Health and Human Services,
allows states to waive the work requirement to receive welfare. But the reform law clearly does not allow for that specific waiver,
according to Robert Rector of the conservative Heritage Foundation, who helped draft the 1996 reform.
The Latent Function of
Welfare Un-Reform. There has been much gnashing of teeth over the fact that the Obama Administration's recent
decree on welfare reform means that practicing yoga or bed rest would count as work for purposes of admitting people to welfare
rolls, but there well may be another purpose of the action — intended or unintended. [...] So, clearly, a latent
function, or goal, of the actions is the reduction of the unemployment rate — if you're not seeking work but engaged in
the "work activity" of bed-rest and are collecting welfare because of that status, you are no longer unemployed.
Orrin Hatch introduces bill to block
Obama power grab. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced a bill Wednesday to block President Obama's controversial
changes to work requirements in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families law. Sen. Hatch introduced his bill, the
Preserving Work Requirement for Welfare Programs Act, on the Senate floor by saying, "This bill halts last week's unprecedented
power grab from the Obama administration whereby unelected bureaucrats unilaterally granted themselves the authority to waive
federal welfare work requirements ... to put this another way, unelected bureaucrats ignored the law passed by Congress, the
elected representatives of the American people."
The Misgovernment Campaign. The
Republic has survived, and probably can continue to survive liars, misguided ideologues and incompetents in high office, but
Obama does not stop at flawed logic or false assertion. He has shown himself so irresponsible and so heedless of the best
interests of our economy, social fabric, and security that he has unleashed recently a wave of destructive policies and
administrative practices aimed at manipulating and mobilizing the frightened, the dispirited, the resentful and the ignorant
to help return him to office.
Obama's Illegal and
Risky Welfare Policy. Until this week, the Obama campaign's strategy of interest-group payoffs and demonization of
Romney seemed, if tawdry, at least a possible route to reelection. The president's promises to deliver more and more "free"
stuff for carefully selected grantees — adorned in the language of sticking up for the "middle class" —
appeared to have a chance of success. But the decision to embrace one of the least popular Democratic positions of the
past 100 years — opposition to the work requirement for welfare recipients — is inexplicable
politically. It's also illegal and imperious.
Obama Flouts the Rule of
Law. Mona Charen had a characteristically great column Tuesday [7/17/2012] about President Obama's illegal welfare
policy. The president purports to be unbound by federal welfare law, which imposes work requirements on welfare recipients.
The Washington Times reports that "such activities as motivational reading, housework, weight loss, and journaling" will now qualify
for exemption from work requirements.
So Much for the 'Dignity of
Work'. [Scroll down] The Obama administration has also destigmatized welfare through a series of ads targeted at
middle- and lower-income Americans in both English and Spanish. In the English versions of the radio ads, which the Tatler first
noticed back in April, food stamps are re-branded SNAP, and the ads encourage Americans to call a 1-800 number to find out if they
qualify. The ad's positive, peppy tone notes that it is possible to qualify even if you have a job and own a car and a home.
Obama Puts Democrats Back in Welfare Reform
Trap. Political controversy over welfare is back after a 16-year hiatus. As with the fight that started earlier this year over
whether Catholic organizations should be forced to provide contraceptive coverage to their employees, a rule change from the Department of Health and
Human Services started the dispute. And once again, the Obama administration is on shaky ground as a matter of both law and politics.
Obama Admin.: Journaling, motivational
reading count as work for welfare. In 1996, Republicans forced through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) bill, also
known as welfare reform. It incentivized states to create welfare-to-work programs, trying to transition Americans from government dependency
to financial solvency. But states quickly acted to poke holes in that legislation, calling the following activities "work" for purposes of the
statute: bed rest, personal care activities, massage, exercise, journaling, motivational reading, smoking cessation, weight loss promotion,
participation in parent-teacher meetings, or helping friends or family with household tasks and errands. This was idiotic. So in 2005,
Congress closed the loophole, over the objections of then-Senator Obama. Now, Obama has walked back the 2005 legislation, using his Department
of Health and Human Services to unilaterally waive those work requirements.
Leftist politicians perpetuate poverty and dependence
... by encouraging people to get hooked on welfare benefits and food stamps.
Why
It's Too Late for Democrat Postmortems. Poverty comes from only two causes: 1) the
individual fails to sufficiently help his tribe survive and progress, and 2) human genius, since
genius requires replacement costs, and respect and repayment, since otherwise the risk and
investment is not worth the effort. In either case, the poor person should be
encouraged to become more productive. It would be good for them and good for us. The
left wants to give everything away for free to the welfarists and addict them to welfare so that
they blindly vote leftist. This is the basis of leftist thought. It is not holistic,
fair, wise, or good for the poor person, who probably has gifts and abilities and willpower he has
not yet found that will help him help society. And so, where do Democrats start in their
battle to see themselves and to begin telling themselves and us the truth about them? It is
human ego and human nature that elites tend to become snarling monsters who do not care about the
little guy. Democrats failed to see this because they have become shameless and detached from
reality in the belief that they always know best.
Gullibility
101. The loony leftist assumes that the poor are poor because of the rich. The
wealthy have more than their fair share (as if wealth is limited — it isn't: it's
produced, but that's another discussion). So — if we raise taxes on the rich, we'll
have enough money to give a lot to the poor and we'll all be equal. Right? That just
beats all. How do they think the rich got that way? Not by being stupid. No law
has ever been written that didn't have a loophole in it. The rich can afford to lobby
Congress to get those loopholes created. And the rich can afford to hire people smart enough
to find and appropriate those loopholes. What makes matters worse is that not only do the
rich get richer, but those whose job it is to redistribute the wealth gain power and use that power
to get even richer themselves. So, the poor will always be with us.
Texas
Supreme Court halts Harris County 'Guaranteed Income' program. The Texas Supreme
Court halted a "guaranteed income" pilot program launched by Harris County on Friday, likely
setting the stage for the program to be scrapped altogether. In a 12-page ruling, Justice
Jimmy Blacklock delivered the opinion for the court, granting the state's motion to halt the
program and ordered all payments "prohibited pending further order of this court."
This is the second time the high court has ruled on, and halted, the program.
San
Francisco Will Be Spending 5 Million Per Year On Free Booze for the Homeless.
San Francisco has been spending $5 million a year for four years on a taxpayer-funded program
that hands out bottles of beer, glasses of wine, and shots of vodka to homeless alcoholics.
Under the 'managed alcohol program', nurses distribute shots of vodka and beer multiple times a day
as part of patients' healthcare plans[.] [Video clip]
San
Francisco Exemplifies Leftist Logic Perfectly With Program to Help Alcoholic Bums Get Free Vodka
Shots. The City of San Francisco has decided to take a rather peculiar approach to
address the issue of homeless alcoholics. They've initiated a "Managed Alcohol Program,"
which, in the most cynical sense, can be summed up as providing free beer and vodka shots to
homeless individuals suffering from alcohol addiction. This program, funded by the taxpayer's
hard-earned dollars, is a part of a little-known pilot program. Experts claim that this
program can save lives or at least prolong them. But let's be honest here, it's not like the
city is investing in their recovery or sobriety. Instead, they're simply making sure these
individuals stay off the streets and out of emergency services, which apparently saves the city a
few bucks.
San
Francisco Slammed For Spending Millions Of Dollars For Vodka And Beer For Homeless Alcoholics.
San Francisco is spending around $5 million a year to give vodka shots and glasses of beer to
homeless people with severe alcohol addiction in an effort to cut down on calls to police and
hospital stays, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. The city's "managed alcohol program"
started during the COVID pandemic, but came under fire earlier this week after Adam Nathan, the
chair of the Salvation Army San Francisco Advisory Board, posted a thread on X, saying he "stumbled
upon the building where they have this program."
S.F.
program gives homeless people free booze. Here's why the city says it's helpful.
For a small slice of San Francisco's homeless population that struggles with severe alcohol
addiction, nurses offer treatment not in a pill, but in a shot of vodka or a glass of beer.
It may sound counterintuitive, experts say, but it helps keep people off the streets and out of
emergency rooms, jails — or the morgue. San Francisco set up a "managed alcohol
program" four years ago as a way to care for vulnerable homeless people who drank excessive amounts
of alcohol and were among the city's highest users of emergency services.
Guaranteed
income programs will create more poverty. Several cities across the United States
give low-income families a guaranteed basic income. I wrote about this trend in my book
Seven Gray Swans. It is my opinion these efforts will ultimately create more of the
problem that they are intended to solve. [...] Pilot programs are funded by the federal government
(taxpayers), foundations, and state and local taxpayers. For one to three years, recipients
will receive income with no strings attached. This is not a loan or wages for labor.
The recipients have zero accountability for the use of funds. It amounts to a charitable gift
to private citizens, so it is mislabeled as "income," which is normally associated with
compensation for a job or task.
California
sues El Dorado County, Placerville for banning needle exchange programs. The
California Department of Public Health is suing El Dorado County and the city of Placervillefor
banning needle exchange programs, defying state law and policies. The state has challenged
the actions by both the county's Board of Supervisors and the Placerville City Council to stop the
safe syringe programs, or SSPs. The lawsuit, filed in early March in El Dorado Superior
Court, not only spotlights the debate about the effectiveness of the programs but California's
assertion that local jurisdictions are not empowered to overrule state law. Specifically, the
justice department is arguing that because the state has already allowed SSPs to exist, counties
and cities have no authority to ban them.
Biden
boosted the need for food stamps — and calls that a 'success'. Presidents
Donald Trump and Joe Biden each view their respective records on food stamps as grand successes,
even though they produced directly opposite results. Welfare rolls fell during Trump's
tenure, while more people rely on government under Biden. Apparently, one man's success is
another man's failure. Under Trump, the combination of low inflation and a booming economy
meant more people with jobs and growing paychecks that weren't simply negated by higher
prices. People genuinely became wealthier and incomes rose, even after adjusting for
inflation. Consequently, fewer people needed to rely on welfare programs like the
Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, more commonly called food stamps.
NYC
spent almost $2.5B providing welfare checks to over 720K residents — the most it's paid
out in over a decade. New York City provided 720,765 residents cash assistance last
year — the most [it has] awarded in welfare checks in at least a decade. To handle
the surge, a staggering $2.46 billion in federal, state and city funds was budgeted by Mayor
Adams this year to provide cash assistance to adults unable to work or pay their bills and for
their children. The city previously budgeted $1.99 billion during the fiscal year that
ended June 30, and $1.57 billion in fiscal 2022. The biweekly checks are used for
rent, utility costs and purchasing clothing or other necessities. The number of New Yorkers
getting handouts is 17% more than the 614,402 recipients in 2022 during Adams' first year in
office, and 30% more than the 555,311 in 2021 during Bill de Blasio's final year in office, an
examination of city records by The [New York] Post shows.
House
Republicans Agree To Help Democrats Grow The Welfare State And Shrink The Workforce.
The legislation increases the portion of the subsidy considered refundable — that is,
the amount that households can receive as a cash payment over and above any income tax liability
they have. Under current law, $1,600 of the $2,000 subsidy is refundable, but the legislation
would increase that threshold to the full $2,000 in 2025. While this provision, along with the
others discussed below, will technically expire in 2025, Democrats will likely move to extend all
of them as part of consideration of the Trump tax plan, major portions of which will also expire
next year. While Congress calls this particular program the "child tax credit," the term in
many respects constitutes a misnomer, because most of the payments go to individuals who owe no
income taxes. For instance, the Joint Committee on Taxation found that over
91 percent — or $30.6 billion of the $33.5 billion cost — of
these changes to the "child tax credit" would come via outlay (i.e., spending) effects, making it
much more of a welfare subsidy than a reduction in tax liability.
Markets
and Miracles. Government handouts changed people's thinking. They taught
millions of Americans: You are entitled to a check. No longer was it individuals'
responsibility to help families, neighbors and ourselves; now it was clearly government's
job. The result is that people became dependent on handouts. Government rarely teaches
people to be self-sufficient; handouts encourage you to be helpless. Welfare created something
never seen before in America: a near-permanent "underclass." Welfare told parents:
don't get married; you'll lose benefits. Don't work; your check will be reduced. Above
all, make sure the father isn't home when a welfare worker comes. If he is, your check may be
reduced or eliminated. This changed incentives that motivated parents for generations.
The result has been ruinous for millions of children.
Why
Governments Have Replaced God with Global Warming. In many ways, living within the
walls of government is a lot like serving a life sentence in the penitentiary: at some point,
people become so used to the bars on their cells and so dependent on the directions of their
jailers that, when push comes to shove, they would gladly choose to stay locked up in chains.
Those who love government's coercive grip over their lives are forever "institutionalized."
All rulers — whether in the mold of communist dictator Xi Jinping or Bill Clinton's "I
feel your pain" fake-but-folksy politician — wield power as Machiavelli's "prince" by
seeking to "institutionalize" the people under their charge. As such, all forms of government
pursue two identical policies: first, they invent threats for their citizens to fear,
and second, they establish a monopoly over available solutions.
Toronto's
shocking priorities: lavish $33,000 spent on branded drug gear as addiction crisis soars.
The City of Toronto has spent tens of thousands of dollars in the last three years on branded crack pipe
stickers and other paraphernalia. The hefty price tag of $33,561 for Toronto Public Health branded
stickers can be found on crack smoking kits, crystal meth kits, foil kits and injection kits, according
to access to information documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF). [Tweet]
"Each of the stickers on the kit bags cost $0.2017," details the document, noting that a total of 166,392
City of Toronto branded kits have been distributed for free. "Why in the world does the city need to
spend thousands of dollars on stickers for crack pipes and meth kits?" CTF Ontario director Jay Goldberg
asks. "This is a crystal-clear example of reckless city hall spending that needs to stop."
The
Catastrophic Death of Fairness. Stealing the earned successes of some, so that others
may benefit without sacrifice, has a tendency to permanently scar both the victim of the theft and
the supposed beneficiary. When hard work and dedication are spurned, a seed of dejection is
planted that can spoil an otherwise promising life. When unearned rewards become expected
entitlements, the enriching pursuit of human excellence withers and often dies.
America
and the Common Characteristics of Authoritarian Regimes. [#12] A Permanent Underclass:
The regime knows that financial independence leads to an independent mind which soon begins to
rebel. Hence, they ensure that the masses are always hungry and needy. This permanent
underclass survives on government subsidies and is perpetually grateful. Members of the
regime are insulated from these hardships. Castro's disastrous economic policies in Cuba led
to high inflation, shortages, and high taxes.
Debt
deal imposes new work requirements for food aid and that frustrates many Democrats.
Democrats are deeply conflicted about the food aid requirements that President Joe Biden negotiated
as part of the debt ceiling deal, fearing damage has been done to safety net programs that will be
difficult to unravel in the years ahead as Republicans demand further cuts. Bargaining over
toughening work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as
food stamps, became the focal point for the White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.,
up until the end. Negotiators from both sides made clear, publicly and privately, that it was
the biggest area of disagreement and almost led to the talks breaking down several times.
The Editor says...
Why would anyone be opposed to work requirements for perpetual parasites?
If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.
There
are never enough regulations for progressives. Bernie Sanders now wants a minimum
wage of $17 per hour and a 32-hour work week. [...] The goal of Democrats for decades seems to be
making more people dependent on the government instead of having a goal to make more people
independent and giving them the opportunity to move up the economic ladder. A huge problem is
that members of Congress haven't worked even an average of 32 hours a week for a long time, so they
live in an alternative universe. Five of the richest ten counties in the United States are
around Washington, D.C., where they produce nothing but more bureaucracy for the rest of us, but
there is never enough. The question is, when will the politicians and bureaucrats ever think
they have confiscated more than their fair share? The answer is never.
It's
a Problem When the Goal of School Meals Is No Longer Just to Serve Students in Need.
The White House wants every K-12 student to be part of the welfare system. And in its zeal to
achieve that goal, pesky things like Congress or the risk of expanding already poorly performing
programs pose no obstacles. President Joe Biden's administration is continuing the work of
President Barack Obama's team and trying to put as many students as possible on federal school meal
programs. The current administration is proposing a significant expansion of school meals,
turning a program meant for children from low-income families into an entitlement — akin
to welfare — for all students. Created in 1946 to help poor school-aged children
who did not have food to eat at school, the National School Lunch Program has since spawned
breakfast and other meal services. In 2010, federal lawmakers expanded school meals yet again
through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.
Playing
By the Rules Is for Suckers. Just look at yourself, all responsible and
upstanding. You worked hard, and you played by the rules. You didn't go out and commit
felonies or drop a bunch of kids with so many partners that you need a spreadsheet to keep Father's
Day straight. You've earned a credit score in the triple digits by paying your bills.
Congratulations. Now you get to pay for the deadbeats who party while you grind out a
paycheck. The Biden regime's new plan is to add a surcharge to the mortgages of people with
good credit scores to subsidize a key Democrat constituency, the ditzes, doofuses, layabouts, and
bums whose bad decisions would have once led to bad consequences, except we only do dire consequences
for good people in 2023. Their problems are your problems, and your problems are also your problems.
Useless Minds.
One potential solution to the displacement of workers by automation is to adopt a Universal Basic
Income (UBI), where everyone in society is guaranteed an income regardless of employment.
People might use their unlimited free time to pursue other interests since it would be pointless to
retrain for the old careers. Those might be volunteering, artistic pursuits, or caring for
family members. These activities may not be valued in terms of monetary compensation but can
still provide a sense of purpose and fulfillment. In a completely automated society, the
ownership of the economy would depend on the economic system in place. If the society was
capitalist, the robotic economy would likely be owned by individuals or corporations, presumably
taxed by the government to provide a UBI for the economically "useless mouths." In a socialist or
communist system, the means of production would be owned by the state. Since state-owned
factories have historically been less productive than private enterprise the UBI provided by
socialist/communist robots might prove lower. But essentially the arrangement would be the
same. Greater and greater percentages of the population — regardless of whether
they are capitalist or socialist — would be dependent on the dole.
The
homeless industrial complex. Homeless people are big business in cities like New
York, San Francisco, and L.A. Billions of dollars flow to nonprofits, bureaucrats, and
contractors whose job it is to "solve" the homeless crisis. You may have noticed that the
homeless crisis is in no way being solved. There are multiple reasons for that, of course,
and the biggest one is that people are homeless for a reason. They are often mentally ill,
drug abusers, or themselves the victims of abuse. The crisis itself is very real, both for
the homeless people themselves and the people who have to live with them. Nearly everybody
involved sees their quality of life get much worse, which is why citizens have kicked in billions
of tax dollars a year to clean up the mess and help the people. The one group of people whose
lives are improved dramatically by the continuation of the crisis, though, gets all the money and
makes all the decisions on how to spend it. They are doing very well indeed.
Bill
in Oregon Would Give $1,000 Per Month to Homeless People. In the state of Oregon, a
newly-proposed bill would see the state government hand out $1,000 to the state's homeless
residents, with no limits on how the money could be spent. As the New York Post
reports, the bill was introduced by State Senator Winsvey Campos (D-Ore.) and State Representative
Khanh Pham (D-Ore.), and would establish a "People's Housing Assistance Fund Demonstration
Program." The program would give 12 monthly payments of $1,000 to Oregon residents who are either
homeless or about to become homeless. The handouts are also available to those who either
spend half or more than half of their monthly income on rent, as well as those who earn 60 percent
or less of their area's median income.
Kamala Harris, the $21
Trillion Woman. That's the conservatively estimated cost of then-Senator Harris' "Monthly Economic Crisis
Support Act." With the Biden administration setting a May 11 end date for the COVID-19 public health emergency, we can
finally close the books on the remarkable plan Harris introduced in May 2020. She proposed sending Americans "crisis
payments" each month that emergency declaration was in effect, plus an extra three months after it expired. The
legislation never advanced, but if it had most Americans would have received $2,000 checks each month retroactive to
March 2020 and continuing through this coming August. Up to two parents and three children per household would
have been eligible, for a maximum of $10,000 per month or an astonishing $120,000 per year. That's nearly double
the US median household income of $67,521 in 2020. It even exceeds the risible guaranteed annual income of $97,000
recently proposed by the San Francisco Reparations Advisory Committee. Think finding workers is hard now?
Across a span of 42 months, a typical family of four would have received a whopping $336,000 in federal
checks — without working a minute.
Democrats
propose plan to make federal government give EVERY American born after 2005 a $1,000 savings account.
Congressional Democrats rolled out a spending proposal aimed at closing the racial wealth gap on Wednesday, which would
give at least $1,000 to every American born after 2005. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley
(D-MA) introduced the American Opportunity Accounts Act, which would federalize the use of 'baby bonds' for the
country's youth to help fight wealth inequality. The program would be funded by raising estate and inheritance
taxes. It would result in a major redistribution of wealth to middle and lower-income Americans.
The Editor says...
Any effort by the government "to help fight wealth inequality" is nothing more than a scheme to buy the votes of
lazy people using the wealth of the most productive and successful citizens.
Report:
Biden Administration Allowing Medicaid Funds to Pay for Groceries. President Joe Biden's (D)
administration is reportedly allowing states to use Medicaid for food and nutritional counseling, according to the
Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported Sunday that policy makers are trying to determine whether
"food as medicine" programs can enhance health and also save money, the outlet said: ["]A growing body of
research suggests that addressing food insecurity can improve health as well as deliver savings by reducing medical
visits, the need for medication, or by helping control serious illness. The programs have also appealed to some
GOP lawmakers who believe states should have more control over their Medicaid programs. ...["]
Biden's
New Border Admission Policy Allows Haitian, Cuban Migrants To Receive Medicaid, Food Stamps, Cash Handouts.
The Biden administration's new policy to permit migrants that would otherwise be expelled allows for Haitians and Cubans
to receive an array of public benefits, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Haitian
and Cuban migrants paroled into the U.S. can receive Medicaid, food stamps and cash benefits, according to HHS' Office
of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). The new program uses parole authority to allow 30,000 Venezuelans, Nicaraguans,
Cubans and Haitians to enter the U.S. on a monthly basis if they have a sponsor. Migrants of the aforementioned
nationalities would otherwise be expelled under Title 42, the Trump-era order used to quickly expel certain
migrants who cross into the U.S. illegally.
You
Must Assume That All Information Put Out By Our Government Is Corrupt. Look under my tag for Poverty, and
you will find one post after another detailing how government poverty statistics showing high rates of poverty in the
U.S. are used to support advocacy for increasing programs and funding supposedly to reduce the poverty; and then after
the programs and funding are increased the measured poverty never goes down. We're now up to well over
$1 trillion per year in anti-poverty funding in the U.S. (all levels of government), and the official "poverty
rate" as measured is right around the same place it was when the War on Poverty started back in the 1960s. How is
this possible? The very simple trick is that the government "anti-poverty" funding never gets counted when
official poverty is measured The statistics are very intentionally and cynically manipulated to be misused to advocate
for growing government programs and dependency.
Portland
homeless woman boasts about how she is fed three meals a day by woke city and can stay in her tent all day and do
drugs. A homeless woman on the streets of Portland bragged about the perks of living on the streets,
including the free meals and ability to be high all day. The woman, known only as Wendy, said open-air drug
policies are bringing more tents onto the streets. Portland currently has more than 700 homeless encampments
across the city within less than 150 square miles, and the ordeal has also led to the skyrocketing use of cocaine,
heroine, LCD and meth which officials decriminalized in 2020.
The
Government Wasn't Intended to Be a Charity. A quick trip through Chicago's Southside, or any similar
distressed area in any Democrat-controlled city in America proves it. The real objective of the Democrats
is not to "lift people out of poverty." If they did? Say "Buh-bye" to the Democrat base.
Why? Why would any sane American who succeeds vote Democrat? Why would a successful voter willingly stand by
while the federal government robs him or her to pay Paul? Why would a financially sound American who's charitably
minded rather allow the government to redistribute his or her money rather than contribute to the charities of his or
her choice? All questions are rhetorical.
Your Government Hates You.
During the coronavirus fiasco many state and local governments took a ride on the federal government's gravy train,
which was powered by mega amounts of printing press money. State and local politicians, who are generally much
dumber than they look, took this one time, event driven largesse from Washington and used it to establish new, and
everlasting structural spending programs. This week, for example, we discovered there are at least 82
municipalities across 29 states that are promoting guaranteed income programs. And more than 70 of these
municipalities have pilot programs created in the past year. There's even a coalition of over 100 mayors, aptly
titled Mayors for Guaranteed Income, that are advocating for them. How do these forward-thinking mayors intend to
pay for these guaranteed income programs? They intend to raid federal pandemic assistance money from a $350 billion
fund for state and local governments within the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, adopted in March
2021. Remember where this money comes from; that is, it comes from you, the American taxpayer. Adding to the
army of dependents reliant on government for their daily bread is beyond foolish. People who receive ongoing
handouts slip into apathy. They become unwilling and unable to provide for themselves. They become
dependents for life. And what happens when the guaranteed income can no longer be guaranteed?
Cook
County Guaranteed Income Pilot Prepares Participants for First Payments. At an enrollment event this week,
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle welcomed some of the more than 3,000 participants in the Cook County
Promise guaranteed income pilot. The participants, who were selected by lottery, are set to receive their first monthly
payment of $500 on Dec. 15. "This is the largest guaranteed income pilot in the country, $42 million.
We will have 3,250 individuals participating over a two-year period in the pilot program," Preckwinkle said.
The hunger scam.
America's poor don't have a hunger problem, they have a nutrition problem. The biggest medical issue for the poor
is obesity yet today's popular propaganda about the poor tells us they are hungry and overweight at the same time.
"Food insecurity" is a myth. The federal government doles out food vouchers like they were candy and in many cases
that is exactly what they turn out to be. On top of the federal safety net turned into a hammock, local food banks
hand out food to anyone who shows up, usually with no means testing. This lack of accountability, combined with
the myriad of free [dinners], free lunches, and school feeding programs throughout the country creates for a black
market in food for cash. [...] The government provides this benefit with fewer restrictions in order to buy recipients'
votes. If government [cared] about the nutritional well-being of the poor, they would stop encouraging recipients
to eat their way into the healthcare system where once again, the taxpayer foots the bill. The government looks
the other way while the poor poison themselves with unhealthy eating habits.
Biden
is abusing his 'emergency powers' to grow the welfare state. After more than two years, the rollout of
effective vaccines for all who want them, and much anguish, the public has moved on from COVID-19. Although the virus
tragically continues to take lives, some degree of COVID-19 prevalence is likely our new normal, hence why just 1% of voters
now list COVID-19 as their priority issue. It no longer even ranks in the top 10. But the Biden administration is
simply unwilling to let go of the emergency — and its "emergency" powers. The president is reportedly
planning on extending the pandemic emergency declaration, originally implemented in January 2020 under former President
Donald Trump, yet again after it was set to expire on July 15. Why extend the declaration even though the "emergency"
is clearly long over? [...] The real reason this White House won't give up its "temporary" emergency powers is much more
sinister — and partisan. It's simple: The forever-emergency status quo is allowing them to keep
millions of ineligible people on welfare programs such as Medicaid and food stamps.
St.
Paul, Minn., expands guaranteed basic income to address college savings. The Minnesota city of St. Paul
is looking to combine the federal funds it received during the COVID-19 pandemic with private donations to expand its
guaranteed basic income program for struggling families. Pending city council approval in July, the $4 million in
coronavirus relief grants, plus $1 million from philanthropists, will go to 666 families eligible for the next phase of the
city's income program called College Bound Boost, the Twin Cities Pioneer Press reported. A family must be enrolled in
College Bound St. Paul — a personalized college savings account program created by the city over two years
ago — and have an income of no more than three times the federal poverty limit to be eligible for College Bound
Boost.
The Editor says...
If you have an income that's almost "three times the federal poverty limit," do you really need a handout from
the government? Probably not, but the city of St. Paul calls such people "struggling families."
Yes,
Safe Smoking Kits Include Free Crack Pipes. We Know Because We Got Them. Crack pipes are distributed in
safe-smoking kits up and down the East Coast, raising questions about the Biden administration's assertion that its
multimillion-dollar harm reduction grant program wouldn't funnel taxpayer dollars to drug paraphernalia. The findings
are the result of Washington Free Beacon visits to five harm-reduction organizations and calls to over two dozen more.
In fact, every organization we visited — facilities in Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and
Richmond, Va. — included crack pipes in the kits. The kits became the subject of national attention in the
wake of a Free Beacon report in February indicating that a $30 million harm-reduction program was set to fund the
distribution of free crack pipes in "safe-smoking kits." Pressed on the matter in a Feb. 9 press briefing, White House
press secretary Jen Psaki issued a full-throated denial.
Biden
announces 20 internet companies will give 'free' high-speed broadband for almost 50 million low income families. The Biden
administration announced a plan to get high-speed internet to millions of Americans through subsidies and discounts agreed to by
industry — putting work-from-home technology, plus educational and entertainment options into rural and low-income homes.
'High-speed internet service is no longer a luxury — it's a necessity,' the White House said in a fact sheet Monday [5/9/2022]
announcing the program. The funds come from the bipartisan infrastructure law that Biden is championing around the country.
The Editor says...
Low-speed internet service is good enough for email, high-school homework, and browsing the news.
High-speed internet is "a necessity" only if you watch a lot of movies and TV shows over the internet, or you
constantly upload movies of your cat.
N.J.
residents to get $13M more from feds to help pay home energy bills. Low-income New Jerseyans will be getting
another $12.8 million to help them pay their heating and cooling bills, the final tranche of a record allocation to the
state. President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus law, the $1 trillion bipartisan
infrastructure law and the regular spending bills will deliver $302.4 million to the state through Sept. 30, more
than double the $112.7 million the state ordinarily would receive under the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program,
or LIHEAP. [...] New Jersey residents making no more than 60% of the state median Income and who receive utility bills
directly or have those charges included in their rent are eligible for the program. For a family of four, the monthly
income cutoff is $6,439, according to nj211.org.
The
child tax credit is a ruse. Here's what is at the heart of the woke push for a permanent cash child tax
credit — really, a government-provided cash allowance to procreate. It's about creating electoral dependency
and buying votes. If leftists really wanted to help children from low-income families, they would be pushing more for
government-funded daycare to help working parents and expansion of pre-kindergarten programs for the children of working
parents. It's true that the Biden Build Back Better plan provides $100 billion over the next three years for expanded
childcare, but when you actually spread that out and apply it to the eligible 23.6 million children below age five, it's only
about $100 per month — hardly enough to pay for child care.
[The]
Kellogg Foundation [is] now paying illegal aliens $500 per month for being non-white, non-American. With
funding from the Kellogg Foundation, which controls the Kellogg's cereal empire, the New Mexico Economic Relief Working Group
has partnered up with the national nonprofit UpTogether to offer monthly payments of $500 to qualifying illegal alien
families beginning in March. According to the coalition, the NM Immigrant GBI Project will be the first one statewide
to offer guaranteed basic income to illegal invaders. So far, 330 families from 13 New Mexico counties, including in
Doña Ana County, will start receiving $500 monthly payments for 12 months starting in just a few weeks. "The
payments will be delivered through direct deposit or prepaid cards, and there are no conditions on what the money can be used
for," reports explain.
Guaranteed
income pilot program will use lottery to pick 5,000 recipients of $500 monthly checks. With demand for the $500
monthly payments expected to outstrip the $31.5 million in available cash, Chicago will hold a lottery to pick 5,000
participants in what Mayor Lori Lightfoot has touted as the nation's largest universal basic income program. Four
months after the City Council agreed to use a chunk of federal pandemic relief money to provide the no-strings-attached cash
assistance, the year-long test period finally may be getting off the ground. On Thursday, Lightfoot marked the two-year
anniversary of her war on poverty by announcing the city will launch the lottery for the program in April.
CrackPipeGate
Just Got a Lot More Interesting — and Confusing. Did they or didn't they? That is the question
some are asking about the White House crack pipe funding scandal. When it was first reported that the Biden
administration would be funding the distribution of crack pipes to underserved communities as part of "smoking kits," it
seemed like a Babylon Bee headline. But the Washington Free Beacon's report was quite serious about the grant
that would provide for these questionable drug-consuming resources. After the White House denied claims that the grant
would specifically fund the distribution of paraphernalia that would allow for the consumption of crack cocaine, meth, and
other illicit substances, the issue received even more scrutiny. Now, after various reports from the Washington
Post, and a rebuttal from the Free Beacon, the issue has become even murkier.
White
House crack pipe distribution denials fall apart. The White House has been furiously denying that the Biden
administration would even dream of handing out crack pipes to addicts in the name of 'racial equity.' The scrambling
came following the Washington Free Beacon's Feb. 7 report that the Biden administration was handing out 'safe smoking kits'
to NGOs to distribute to drug addicts for a claimed purpose of 'harm reduction.' [...] When news of that hit the airwaves,
the Department of Health and Human Services furiously declared the whole Beacon report 'blatant misinformation.' White
House spokesweasel Jen Psaki called it "inaccurate reporting" and claimed that crack pipes were "never a part" of the 'safe
smoking kits.' The Biden administration said that "no federal funding" would be used for such things. Then the
mainstream media and the 'fact-checking' outfits jumped on, declaring the Beacon story wrong, false, a lie... But the
preponderance of the evidence says that that's exactly what they were doing and probably will continue to do once the flak
dies down.
Republicans
Propose the HUNTER Act, Which Would Ban the Government from Funding Crack Pipes. In case you missed it, the
Biden administration has set aside $30 million in funding for a program that includes 'safe smoking kits' with paraphernalia
that critics have referred to as 'crack pipes.' The mainstream media hath decreed that this is a bastardization of the
program's intent and thus it is sacrosanct to refer to such 'drug equity' paraphernalia as 'crack pipes.' The Washington
Beacon broke the story, as pointed out by Fox News. "The Health and Human Services (HHS) Department is rolling out a
$30 million grant program that will fund the distribution of items, like crack pipes, for smoking illicit substances,
according to a new report," Fox News reported.
Kellogg
Foundation Bankrolls $500 Monthly Income for Illegal Aliens. The left-wing W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which
effectively controls the Kellogg Company, is bankrolling a pilot program that will provide hundreds of illegal aliens living
in the United States with a guaranteed basic income. A coalition of activist organizations has teamed up to institute
the pilot program across 13 counties in New Mexico where 330 illegal alien households will receive monthly payments of $500
for the next year.
Justice
Department considers allowing safe havens for addicts where users can legally shoot up. The Justice Department
says it may be open to allowing safe injection sites — places where people can use heroin and other narcotics with
protections against fatal overdoses — a year after winning a major court battle against their opening. The department
said it's 'evaluating' such facilities and talking to regulators about 'appropriate guardrails' in response to questions from
the Associated Press. The position is a drastic change from its stance in the Trump administration, when prosecutors
fought vigorously against a plan to open a safe consumption site in Philadelphia.
Biden's
administration wants to make life easier for minority crack addicts. In times past, the American government
stood with productive people and pushed back against the forces of corruption and decay. In Biden's America, though,
the opposite is true. Big cities are becoming concierge services for hard-drug addicts and Biden's administration is
joining in, with a multi-million plan to provide crackpipes for addicts. And here's the kicker: In the name of
equity, the administration will make a special effort to bring these instruments of destruction to Blacks and members of the
LGBTQ+ crowd. There's a growing trend on the left to facilitate drug addiction. Just recently, under ex-Mayor de
Blasio's aegis, New York opened legal shooting galleries — or, as they're politely called, "Overdose Prevention
Centers." On the very first day, five people overdosed in the Harlem site — although they were brought back to
life. The theory is that, if the drug addicts have a nice, safe place to shoot up, fewer will die. This is the
same belief system that sees parents offer their kids pot and alcohol at home so that they're not on the mean streets doing drugs.
Biden
Admin To Fund Crack Pipe Distribution To Advance 'Racial Equity'. The Biden administration is set to fund the
distribution of crack pipes to drug addicts as part of its plan to advance "racial equity." The $30 million grant
program, which closed applications Monday and will begin in May, will provide funds to nonprofits and local governments to
help make drug use safer for addicts. Included in the grant, which is overseen by the Department of Health and Human
Services, are funds for "smoking kits/supplies." A spokesman for the agency told the Washington Free Beacon that these
kits will provide pipes for users to smoke crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, and "any illicit substance."
The Editor says...
Is crack smoked exclusively by people of one race? Are these people better off if the government makes it easier to smoke crack?
Update:
Biden
administration says tax dollars won't be used to buy crack pipes. The Biden administration on Wednesday denied
reports that $30 million in federal grants would go towards funding pipes to smoke meth and crack. Health and Human
Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and National Drug Control Policy Office Director Dr. Rahul Gupta issued a joint
statement refuting the claim and stating that their offices "focused on using our resources smartly to reduce harm and save
lives." "[N]o federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to put pipes in
safe smoking kits," they stressed. The funding will go towards "proven harm reduction strategies like providing
naloxone, fentanyl test strips, and clean syringes, as well as taking decisive actions to go after violent criminals who are
trafficking illicit drugs like fentanyl across our borders and into our communities," according to the statement.
The Editor says...
The government is only providing "clean syringes." Please bring your own crack pipe.
San
Francisco Promotes Illegal Drug Use, Overdose Deaths 'Skyrocket'. San Francisco launched a "bizarre medical
experiment" in which the city helps the homeless use illegal drugs. Environmental and urbanization writer Michael
Shellenberger notes that since the pandemic began, the city has lost twice as many residents to drug overdoses than to COVID.
"The city is carrying out a bizarre medical experiment whereby addicts are given everything they need to maintain their
addiction — cash, hot meals, shelter — in exchange for ... almost nothing," Shellenberger reports in a
Substack column.
Has
the US Government Declared War on Its Citizens? [Scroll down] What kind of government intentionally
depreciates the value of the dollars paid for the workingman's labor, cripples his children's future with unserviceable debt,
and then sends his job overseas so that the things he can no longer afford are built by people he no longer knows? What
kind of government sacrifices the abundant natural resources of its own lands so that it is dependent on oil, steel,
minerals, and rare earth metals from foreign adversaries and enemies? What kind of government sacrifices a labor force
spread across the continent, so that a small number of tech and finance employees in a handful of coastal cities can prosper
at everyone else's expense? It is as if the U.S. government set out to make a broad swath of the American people as
dependent on government welfare as the government is dependent on critical resources coming from foreign dictators. How
could that possibly be a formula for American safety, security, and survival?
DC
daycare workers to receive $10,000 checks. Thousands of daycare workers in Washington, D.C., are set to receive
checks of at least $10,000 after the city council passed a measure reallocating tax dollars from the richest residents to
those who work in childcare. The Council of the District Columbia on Tuesday voted unanimously to disburse the funds,
available to any eligible childcare worker who applies for it. Workers will receive personal checks anywhere between
$10,000 to $14,000, depending on their current position. The one-time payment is the first step toward raising
childcare workers' salaries, as city officials argue they are underpaid.
The Editor says...
Janitors, grocery sackers, burger flippers, and daycare workers are not rocket scientists or brain surgeons.
Some jobs pay more than others. If you feel that you're underpaid, it could be because you're paying too much
in taxes. Or it could be because the minimum wage is too high, and everybody else in town is overpaid.
Or maybe it's because you didn't pay attention in school, before you dropped out. Or maybe you don't have enough
money because you spent it all on tattoos, cigarettes, concert tickets, false eyelashes, and scratch-off lottery tickets.
What's
With the Left's Attempt to Abolish Work? [A]ll societies, even hunting and gathering societies, do require
self-support and work in order to function. They may not have a market exchange, but there's nobody sitting around
saying, "Hey, go find me some food and I'll sit here." Nothing works like that. And work is fundamentally about
self-support. If you think back traditionally, this would be someone building his own house, raising his own food,
family making their own clothes, and so forth. Now, in a market economy, we don't do that anymore. But what we do
is exchange our work for someone else's work, who can do a particular thing more efficiently.
Six
Basic Concepts Liberals Don't Get. [#3] Welfare spending doesn't cure poverty; it creates it. Work and
self-reliance are the only means to escape poverty. But that requires action by individuals, not the state.
People have to choose to take responsibility for their own welfare. Unfortunately, providing unearned income trains
sloth and makes people wards of the state, rather than the self-reliant creatures they are meant to be. It's counter to
nature. "Wild" animals born and raised in captivity can rarely be returned to the wild. They lack the skills for
survival. By allowing people to live without working, we are training them to forget their survival skills. Those
skills include a will to survive, a craft to support themselves, a drive to excel, and the ability to cope with life's
disappointments. Welfare is no longer a safety net. For far too many, it has become a way of life. It is
the exact opposite of its intended purpose — to help those who have fallen on hard time to get back on their
feet. Now it allows people to choose poverty as a means to a life of leisure — as long as their expectations
aren't too high. An amazing number of people are willing to make that choice.
Democrats
Reject Work Ethic, Embrace Freeloaders. Using the pretext of pandemic relief, Democrats enacting the American
Rescue Plan last March changed a feature of the tax code, the child tax credit available to adults who work and pay taxes,
into a grant paid unconditionally and monthly to almost all adults with kids, whether they work or not. Democrats have
been pushing to extend the monthly payments through 2022 as part of the Build Back Better Act, with a plan to make them
permanent. [Senator Joe] Manchin saw right through what his party intended: a socialist-style universal basic
income. Manchin objected to the unconditional monthly cash grants: "There's no work requirement whatsoever."
Hundreds
of Bronx NYCHA residents get free wi-fi, $11 laptops — and program is expanding. Hundreds of Bronx
families signed up for free internet access and $11 laptops on Monday as part of a new federal program. More than 1,200
families at the Melrose Houses will have affordable internet access thanks to the Emergency Broadband Benefit program. [...]
Because of the pandemic, [one woman] said her 16-year-old son has been doing more and more of his class work remotely.
She said she spends over $150 a month on technology for her home. The free internet she signed up for on Monday
[11/29/2021] will go a long way for her budget.
The Editor says...
[#1] Yes, and being legally married would do a lot for your budget, too.
[#2] There is no emergency need for broadband internet service.
Government
Supports Would Grow to $76,400 per Poor Family. This week, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on
the partisan Build Back Better Act. This legislation, if enacted, would generate the largest increase in means-tested
welfare spending in U.S. history. House leadership has allegedly cut the 10-year costs of the bill in half. But
these "savings" are almost entirely due to the gimmick of terminating or curtailing the bill's enormous spending initiatives
halfway through the 10-year budget window or sooner. Have you ever seen the federal government pull the plug on a
welfare program after five years? New means-tested spending alone will cost over $800 billion in the first five
years. If this new spending were fully funded through the entire 10-year budget window, the total cost would exceed
$2.5 trillion.
Largest
Welfare Increase in U.S. History Will Boost Government Support to $76,400 per Poor Family. The massive spending
hikes proposed in the Biden Administration's revised Build Back Better Act would be by far the largest increase in
means-tested welfare spending in U.S. history, piled on top of the existing welfare system that costs $1.16 trillion per
year. The average poor family with children already receives $65,200 in cash, food, housing, medical care, and
educational support from the taxpayer each year. The Biden plan would add at least another $11,300, with payoffs to
special-interest groups including the public school industry, teachers' unions, and large center-based day care. The
plan reverses the Clinton-era welfare reforms, resurrecting the failed policy of rewarding families for not working and
exacerbating the welfare system's already potent marriage penalties.
The
father has no place in today's Democratic Party. In yet another desperate attempt to sell the public on his
failing multitrillion-dollar spending agenda, President Joe Biden released a slideshow Thursday [10/28/2021] that
inadvertently betrays how the modern Democratic Party views the family. And the news isn't good for fathers, mothers,
children, communities, or the nation. In Biden's slideshow, we meet a cartoon "Linda" from Peoria, Illinois.
Linda, we are told, is pregnant with her son "Leo," but we are never told where exactly Leo's father is. We see one
slide in which Linda and Leo benefit from Biden's direct payments to parents. We see another slide that shows the
government helping Linda pay to put Leo in daycare. And we see another slide in which Leo is placed in government-run
pre-K. But again, at no point do we see Linda or Leo with the father. It is as if he doesn't exist.
In Obama's first two terms, she was known
as "Julia."
White
House Sells 'Life of Linda' to Promote Socialist Cradle-to-Grave Government. The White House released a new
series of images to promote the "life of Linda" under President Joe Biden's proposed Build Back Better agenda, promoting the
idea of a government role from the cradle to the grave. The slides tell the story of "Linda," a pregnant working mother
who receives a monthly check from the government to help her provide for her son after he is born and also gets money to help
her pay for daycare. [...] The "Life of Linda" series shows no sign of a husband or father in her life or the life of her
child, suggesting that government will fill in for the man missing in their lives. The Biden White House "Life of
Linda" series echos the "Life of Julia" marketing push used by former President Barack Obama to sell Obamacare to single women.
How
Free Stuff Is Used To Addict The Urban Poor To Welfare. Lifeline is a federal program originally intended to
provide low-income people with a free landline phone. Sensing a chance to get more poor people to vote for them,
Democrats expanded the program to include free cell phones. To maximize the number of subsidized cell phone recipients,
"free phone" vans patrol low-income areas of every Democrat-run city in America, a practice that has resulted in massive
fraud. The "free phones" van pictured [left] set up shop on a street in a predominately African American area of
Baltimore. As revealed in this must-see report by the city's Fox45 TV, within just three years of Barack Obama's
election, fraud exploded the number of subsidized phones in Baltimore from 6,000 in 2008 to 231,000 in 2011. Baltimore
isn't the only place where Democrats have used free phones to addict the urban poor to government dependency. In a
viral video that illustrates how readily poor people will vote for politicians who promise them free stuff, a welfare
recipient in Cleveland, Ohio screamed at a TV reporter that minorities would be voting for Obama because he gives them free
phones.
Franklin
Graham: Democrats Take Your Money and Give It to People 'Not to Work'. "Make it better for the next
generation." This has been the mentality of working Americans for decades, even centuries. Work as hard as you
can so that your children will have the benefits and opportunities you never had. But then the COVID-19 pandemic hit,
and with federal stimulus packages paying the unemployed a comfortable wage, why work hard anymore?
SNAP
(food stamps) benefits have largest increase in history. The Biden administration has approved a significant
and permanent increase in the levels of food stamp assistance available to needy families — the largest single
increase in the program's history. Families in October have seen the average benefits for food stamps (officially known
as the SNAP program) rise more than 25 percent above pre-pandemic levels. The increased assistance is indefinite to all
42 million SNAP beneficiaries. The aid boost was first reported by The New York Times and the details were confirmed by
a spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture. They were formally announced by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
California's
plan to combat meth use? Pay drug users to stop using. What could possibly go wrong? According to a
report from NPR, officials in California are reportedly exploring a potential wide-scale offering to combat meth
addiction: paying individuals to stop using drugs. While it's a bit of a rudimentary explanation of what's being
entertained, that's essentially what the state may pursue to counteract addiction running rampant within the state.
Food
stamp benefits to jump after Congress-ordered review. A pandemic boost to food stamp benefits has expired, but
recipients are set to see a jump in assistance anyway, due to Congress' decision in 2018 to review how benefits are
calculated. Benefits will jump 27% above pre-pandemic levels in October, the largest increase in history, CNN
reported. The spike comes after the Department of Agriculture revised the Thrifty Food Plan, which determines
how much a person receives under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Every
Tragedy Caused by Government Is Done with the Best of Intentions. President Johnson's "war on poverty" caused
more poverty, deepened the dependence upon government welfare of those most economically vulnerable, and initiated a collapse
in marriage rates and two-parent families that continues to this day.
Idle
hands do the devilish Dems' work. The hardest working states, as measured by WalletHub, are predominantly
Republican. The lowest 10 in the rankings are mostly run by Democrats. Probably not a surprise since they were
lavish with unemployment benefits and other work disincentives. Democrat-run states and cities rarely score well in
various quality of life ratings. Notably, the U-Haul ranking of states by migration growth shows that people are
fleeing blue states for red states, usually for economic reasons. They intend to work hard and benefit from the fruits
of their labor. The dignity and sense of purpose that accompany hard work can be tied to long-lasting happiness —
which conservatives enjoy more than liberals — versus the fleeting, instant gratification the ingordigious lefties pursue.
Democrats
Are Trashing the American Work Ethic With Their Spending Bill. The humongous bill that Democrats in Washington,
D.C. are assembling this week is a slap in the face to Americans who work, pay taxes and support their families. The
bill demeans work ethic and glorifies government handouts. It sends a message that work and self-sufficiency are for
suckers. Better to climb on Uncle Sam's gravy train that will now provide cradle-to-grave benefits. The social
spending bill will give monthly payments to almost all parents based on how many children they have, regardless if anyone in
the family works. Democrats are also promising virtually free child care until kids reach age 5, free community college
and, near the end of life, new Medicare and elder care benefits. The bill also includes 12 weeks paid leave each year
for anyone who claims a family member needs care.
This
Nation's Expanding Dependence State. The US government destroys people's lives by giving then free money to
make them dependent and unable to provide for themselves. [...] The same dependance state that is being granted to those who
cross our borders legally will now be given to Afghan refugees who, even if lacking the requirements to be brought to this
nation, will now be the recipient, in part, of funding from American taxpayers, even as Americans have been left behind in
Afghanistan.
In Biden's
America, it's better not to be employed. The latest jobs report for August was disappointing. Job growth
fell by more than half and was one-third of expectations. This was partly because of COVID concerns. But we still
don't have nearly enough adult Americans in the work force. Why? Government welfare policies are clearly keeping
Americans — millions — from taking jobs. Here is what we know: Across the country, there
are between 5 million and 6 million unemployed Americans, but also an all-time record 10.1 million job openings.
These are in construction, warehousing, retail, manufacturing, trucking, business services and so on. These aren't "dead end"
or even minimum-wage jobs in most cases. Open factory and truck driver jobs pay $50,000 to $100,000 a year with benefits.
But economist Casey Mulligan of the University of Chicago has found that when counting all government benefits, a family of four in
high welfare-benefit states like New York and Connecticut and with two unemployed parents can receive up to $100,000 in cash,
food stamps, etc.
Stop
enabling people to avoid work because of COVID. Why should anyone work when he can get all the money he needs
while staying home? A reckoning is coming in September, when the extra benefits are due to be cut off. At that
point, a great many people may find that if they want to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, they will have
to return to work. [...] It's time to stop all this enabling. Sending people back to work and children back to school
is not a death sentence, and the government and news media should stop acting as though it's not safe for the world to return
to normal.
Despite
widespread job openings, Biden administration to extend jobless benefits past deadline. The Biden
administration is working to ensure that $300 weekly unemployment payments from federal taxpayers continue in some form
beyond their expiration date set by Congress. Lawmakers enacted weekly $300 unemployment payments and set them to
expire Sept. 6 in response to joblessness during the pandemic. A political battle is expected over the payments,
especially since many Republicans have argued they are contributing to elevated unemployment despite widespread job
availability.
USDA
to permanently boost food stamp benefits by 25 percent. The Biden administration has approved a significant and
permanent increase in the levels of food stamp assistance available to needy families — the largest single
increase in the program's history. Starting in October, average benefits for food stamps (officially known as the SNAP
program) will rise more than 25 percent above pre-pandemic levels. The increased assistance will be available
indefinitely to all 42 million SNAP beneficiaries.
Here's
proof GOP governors were right to cancel ultra-generous unemployment benefits. It takes a brave politician to
take away welfare benefits from voters. But that's exactly what 26 governors, almost exclusively Republicans, have
done. In their states, these governors prematurely ended the federal government's "temporary" pandemic supplement to
unemployment benefits that was otherwise set to continue through September. They've received tremendous backlash for
this move, but a new report resoundingly vindicates their decision. Under the broken expanded system Congress created,
millions of workers could earn more by staying home on welfare than by returning to work. Indeed, in dozens of states,
unemployed households can receive the equivalent of $25/hour in benefits. The work disincentives here were obvious from
the get-go and have fueled widespread reports from businesses facing labor shortages. It's just not hard to figure
out. Even the equivalent of 1.8 million unemployed people themselves openly admitted in recent polling that they are
choosing to stay home from work because unemployment benefits pay so generously.
Media
Narrative Wrecked! Poll Shows 1.8 Million Turned Down Jobs Because of Government Handouts. A new poll
delivers a devastating blow to the latest lie from the mainstream media about unemployment. According to a poll from
Morning Consult, a whopping 1.8 million Americans turned down jobs because the government extended unemployment benefits and
it discouraged work. The outlet stated that 14.1 million Americans who were receiving unemployment insurance for the
week ending June 19 that "benefits reduced the number of accepted job offers by an estimated 1.84 million over the
course of the pandemic." The 1.84 million Americans turned down jobs likely because of government handouts.
Morning Consult's survey found that "most workers receiving unemployment insurance know that their benefits are about to expire,
signaling that job acceptance and search practices are likely to change even before benefits actually expire."
Biden
to send child tax credits to 39 million families starting Tomorrow with parents of children under the age of 17 getting up to
$300 a month per kid. On Thursday the Internal Revenue Service will begin delivering monthly installments of
President Joe Biden's enhanced child tax credit to some 39 million American families. The boost will see individuals
who make under $75,000 and couples earning under $150,000 with children under six-years-old receive $3,600 per child, with
monthly $300 checks starting to go out July 15. The tax credits were part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan,
which was passed by Congress in March with no Republican support. Republicans have argued that the child tax credit boost
amounts to an expansion of the welfare state. Biden will hold an event at the White House Thursday to mark the first
payments going out.
The Editor says...
Paying people to reproduce does not increase prosperity.
AOC
Urges Illegals to Apply for Welfare in New York. The conscience of the American left, Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio Cortez, told illegals how to apply for welfare in a recent video. AOC told illegal aliens, "Do not count
yourself out," as she urged them to sign up for their government benefits. AOC has been pushing welfare for illegal
aliens for years now. It is also widely known that most U.S. families headed by illegal immigrants use taxpayer-funded
welfare programs on behalf of their American-born anchor babies.
The
Nation That Wouldn't Get Out Of Bed And Go To Work. A country of roughly 330 million has more than 9 million
job openings, and 9.5 million unemployed. This is a disgrace, a clear indication that our American character and work
ethic are slipping, a rolling tragedy that's been authored by the Democrats. [...] According to the Labor Department, there
was a record high of 9.2 million job openings in May, and 9.5 million jobless in June. ZipRecruiter reckons as many
as 15 million jobs need to be filled. Either way, millions are ignoring what MarketWatch describes "an insatiable demand
for labor as the economy fully reopens and businesses scramble to keep up with soaring sales for their goods and services."
We have arrived at this point in history because the Democrats have made sitting at home collecting a government check a better
financial decision than working. We covered this in May, when we said "as part of Biden's 'American Rescue Plan,' the Democrats
included a $300 weekly bonus to those on unemployment that runs until September. The plan included various other handouts that
are letting the jobless live comfortable lives at the moment." In some cases, taxpayer-funded benefits are higher than the
wages recipients would receive in return for their labor.
Buying votes and paying people to reproduce — which they tend to do anyway.
Biden
announces families will get $300 per child a month from July 15 if they earn under $150,000 as he hikes child credits by
80%. President Biden has unveiled his reformed child tax credits which will see American families paid up to
$3,600 to help raise each of their children. The raise, unveiled as part of Biden's $1.8 trillion American Families
Rescue Plan, will see families with children aged under six receive a monthly payment of $300 per child — equivalent to
$3,600 — in 2021. Families with children aged between six and 17 will receive $250 a month, or $3,000 over the course
of a year. [...] Biden's program received widespread support — but some Twitter users condemned it as wasteful and unfair.
Keith McLendon wrote: 'Printing and giving away money is going to only increase inflation even more. I know you don't
understand this but your handlers should...' [...] A user called Donkey Kong added: 'This free money is one of the
lucrative reasons children are used as tools in disingenuous divorces. I can't support these measures because of the
abuse they are open to and for which nothing is done to protect children and wrongfully disenfranchised parents.'
Biden's
Crooked Path to the Middle Class. The New York Times headlined a recent article, "Biden's $6 trillion budget
aims for path to middle class, financed by the rich." But is it possible to confer middle-class status on individuals just
by giving them a handful of unearned money? Is it possible for someone to say, "I'm middle-class because I'm getting
checks from the government"? Most thoughtful observers will recognize the absurdity of this notion, but it doesn't seem
absurd to Biden or his progressive supporters — just as it didn't seem crazy, back in the 2000s, to gift a
middle-class home to those who could not pay for it, or today that one can transform a mediocre student into an Ivy Leaguer
just by adding points to his application based on race. Or, for that matter, that one can confer health on the poor by
buying them health insurance, or that one can end illegal immigration by destroying American energy independence in the name
of climate change.
Six
Ways The Black Community Is Hurt By Democrat Policies. [#1] Promotion of the Welfare State: Around the
same time that the last Republican mayor of Baltimore was leaving office in 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson was putting the
finishing touches on his so-called 'War on Poverty.' Over fifty years later, and after having dumped trillions of
federal tax dollars into programs such as welfare, food stamps, and public housing, poverty in America is virtually identical
to what it was in 1967. Johnson's War on Poverty is one of the worst debacles and biggest failures in American
history. Think of what could have been done with those trillions of dollars that could have actually helped
Americans. Yet Democrats won't acknowledge the failure, and instead choose to double-down. It seems like every
other week President Biden is proposing trillions in new spending on some initiative or another, usually designed to achieve
'equity.' Biden's spending won't work, just like Barack Obama's, Bill Clinton's, Jimmy Carter's and LBJ's spending
didn't work. It's only going to make matters worse.
Guatemalan
President Blasts Biden's Border Policies For Enabling Criminal Human Smugglers. After gifting reporters a cookie of her
face, Vice President Kamala Harris has made her way to Guatemala to discuss the "root causes" of an unprecedented surge of illegal
immigration into the United States since President Biden took office in January. [Tweets] Ahead of her arrival, Guatemalan
President Alejandro Giammattei blasted the Biden Administration for "family reunification" policies that enable human trafficking and
smuggling. "The message changed to 'we're going to reunite families and we're going to reunite children. The very next day
the coyotes were here organizing groups of children to take them to the United States," Giammattei said during an interview with CBS News.
Expanding
the Child Tax Credit Will Do Very Little To Help the Poor. Here's Why. With the latest COVID-19 relief
package, Congress expanded the child tax credit, increasing the maximum amount a taxpayer could claim from $2,000 per child
to $3,000 for those aged 6 to 17 and to $3,600 under age 6. The expanded part of the credit begins to
decrease as income rises above $75,000 for individuals, $112,500 for heads of household, and $150,000 for married
couples. The $2,000 credit starts phasing out when income reaches $200,000 for individuals and $400,000 for married
couples. The credit is bigger, fully refundable, and includes no work requirement. It means that parents who
don't make enough money to pay the income tax will receive cash from the government in the full amount of the credit
regardless of their income. For instance, if you make no income and have two kids between ages 6 and 17 in
addition to one toddler, you would get $9,600 a year. Before the change, only $1,400 of the $2,000 credit was
refundable. So, in the scenario described above, that payment would have been at most $4,200. However, the family
would have to report a limited amount of income to be eligible.
Five
Things to Know About Biden's $1.8 Trillion American Families Plan. [#4] Permanent Expansion of the Welfare
State: Biden is proposing that two major means-tested welfare programs be permanently expanded. First, the
administration would extend the expansion of the refundable child tax credit program until 2025. This change is depicted by
the Biden administration as providing tax relief to families; in reality, most of the proposed cost would send unconditional
monthly welfare checks to families who owe no income tax. Second, the administration would increase the refundable
earned income tax credit, also a cash welfare check, for childless workers. These proposed changes would make existing
problems in the welfare state worse by undermining work and marriage. We've been down this road before. For
example, before the bipartisan welfare reforms of 1996, government benefits discouraged work among low-income parents:
nearly 9 in 10 families on welfare were workless. Most of these families were stuck in long-term poverty.
Two-thirds of families received welfare benefits for more than eight years. Unwed births rose year over year for decades.
And all of this made intergenerational child poverty worse: 1 in 7 children were dependent on welfare benefits.
Employers
Beg for Workers: 'It's the Economy, Stupid'. With so many Americans now vaccinated, economists predicted about
1 million more Americans would find work, but only 266,000 jobs were added to the economy. According to Biden, this has
nothing to do with generous federal unemployment benefits that are scheduled to last until September, on top of state
unemployment benefits. According to Team Biden, it has nothing to do with the federal government (i.e., taxpayers)
paying workers to sit on their couches, watch Netflix and collect unemployment checks, even as small-business owners across
the country are on their knees begging workers to return now that many are vaccinated and the pandemic is winding down.
"I know there's been a lot of discussion since Friday's report that people are being paid to stay home rather than go to
work," Biden said after the April jobs report was made public. "Well, we don't see much evidence of that." To see
evidence, you have to open your eyes. Just like if you want a job you have to take one.
Wisconsin
Democrats Try To Hide Shameful Video Celebrating Most Americans Becoming Welfare Recipients. The same day a
troubling national jobs report showed businesses can't hire workers partly because politicians have risked inflation to make
everyone welfare recipients in the name of "COVID relief," Wisconsin Democrats put out a video calling for people to "show us
your stimmy shimmy." After an outcry on Twitter, the Democrat account deleted the video, but another user saved it:
White
House Occupant Reads Teleprompter, Desperately Attempting to Spin Horrific Policy Outcomes. [Scroll down]
The COVID bailout has created massive incentives for people not to return to work. It is only not a laziness and
comfortable dependency issue, it is also an economic decision. Low wage workers can make more sitting at home getting
unemployment to combine with their COVID bailout money than they can returning to work. The political risk is again
obvious. As overall policy destroys the middle class in favor of Wall Street, multinational corporations and the
investment class, it doesn't take an economist to see the dependency model creates a disincentive. The Chicago crew is
concerned about the backlash from obvious economics. [Biden's] teleprompter is loaded with obtuse talking points that
deflect and deny this reality. Additionally, the teleprompter message to blue states lets them know more money is
coming into their coffers; so hold the line.
Biden
is repeating the disastrous policies of England's welfare state. The Biden administration got a disastrous jobs
report on Friday: In April, the economy added only 266,000 workers, which was one-quarter of what the Democrats had
optimistically predicted would happen after they printed money like Weimar Germany or Venezuela and then handed out massive
stimulus checks. For me, it was déjà vu all over again, because the same thing happened in England
in the late 1970s. Had Trump stayed in office and continued with his economic policies, I believe the economy would
have added the 1 million jobs Democrats so blithely predicted. Instead, ["]The US added just 266,000 jobs in
April — far below economists' expectations of 1 million — and the unemployment rate rose slightly to
6.1 percent, the feds said Friday.["] Significantly, and sadly, the worst hit were Blacks and women, who
were thriving under Trump.
Why
no one needs to work in Biden's America: Experts project anyone who earned $32,000 before COVID could now earn MORE in
benefits staying at home. People who lost their jobs in the pandemic are now earning more in benefits than they
did in wages, creating a nightmare economic situation that is stopping people from returning to work and in turn, driving up
inflation. In March 2019, the average weekly payment to an unemployed person was $348 when combining federal and state
unemployment payments. That nearly tripled to $938 in April 2020, when Trump passed COBRA — a temporary economic plan
that boosted weekly unemployment payments by $600 and also gave employed people one-off stimulus checks. COBRA expired
in July and the unemployment boost was halved to $300-a-week. Now, they are $638-a-week on average and they'll stay
that way until September 6 at least.
The Curley Effect:
The Economics of Shaping the Electorate. James Michael Curley, a four-time mayor of Boston, used wasteful
redistribution to his poor Irish constituents and incendiary rhetoric to encourage richer citizens to emigrate from Boston,
thereby shaping the electorate in his favor. As a consequence, Boston stagnated, but Curley kept winning elections.
Oakland
California Begins $500/Month Payments to Low Income Residents, White People Not Allowed. Oakland California is
beginning a pilot for giving low income families $500/month with no strings attached for up to 600 families. The goal
is to bridge the income disparity gap; however, poor white residents are not permitted to apply for the program.
125
low-income mothers of color in Marin County can receive $1K a month in guaranteed income. Mirroring similar
efforts in cities such as Stockton and Oakland, Marin County supervisors this week approved participating in a universal
basic income experiment to give 125 low-income mothers of color $1,000 a month for two years. The county will spend
$400,000 and the remaining $3 million will come from the Marin Community Foundation, the Marin Independent Journal
reported. To qualify, the women must have a child under the age of 18. Participants will be selected at random
from among 4,600 people who have already received direct cash aid from the foundation with the help of the Family
Independence Initiative.
Oakland to
offer guaranteed income, but only for minority families. Officials in Oakland, California, announced the launch
of a guaranteed income pilot program this week that will provide direct monthly payments to low-income minority families in
the city. The initiative, which is one of the largest guaranteed income experiments to be conducted in the United
States to date, aims to find out if providing regular payments low-income families will lift them from their economic
plight. The program, called Oakland Resilient Families, will send 600 families in the city $500-a-month payments over
the next 18 months as part of an effort to eliminate racial wealth inequalities in the city, which the program argues is the
result of "ongoing systemic racism."
The Editor says...
[#1] Yes, widespread poverty could be the result of systemic racism. But it's more likely the result of
drug use, illegitimate children, incompetent education, and a lifetime of bad decisions. [#2] Notice
the misuse of the word family: It apparently means unmarried women and their illegitimate children,
with no men in the picture. [#3] If white people are excluded from this program, that's "ongoing systemic
racism" right there!
Oakland
launches one of the largest guaranteed income programs in the country. Oakland plans to start a guaranteed
income program this spring for 600 residents — one of the largest such programs in the country, city officials
said — as Bay Area leaders search for solutions to rising poverty and inequality in the wake of the
pandemic. Through the pilot program, residents will receive $500 a month for at least 18 months with no strings
attached, Mayor Libby Schaaf said at a Tuesday news conference. Checks could be in residents' hands by this spring or
summer. Low-income families — with at least one child under 18 — who are Black, indigenous or
people of color will be randomly selected through an application process to vet eligibility, Schaaf said. Officials
said those groups suffer from the greatest wealth disparity, according to data on Oakland's population. More than
70,000 people — or 16.7% of Oakland's population — live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census.
Democrats'
New Welfare Baseline Is All Cash For No Work. Even before President Biden's new $1.9 trillion COVID "stimulus"
package goes into effect, multiple news stories make clear the flaws in its approach. Washington's welfare-industrial
complex, which the "stimulus" will bloat even further, both discourages work and leads people to expect that government will
solve the problems government has created. The coronavirus pandemic caused very real economic hardship for millions of
American families. But many of the well-meaning efforts to address those hardships — along with welfare
expansions Democrats proposed long before COVID hit our shores — will only harm our nation, and the people the
left seeks to help, by stifling our economic dynamism and saddling future generations with mountains of debt.
Unemployed
Could Get $100,000 From Biden's Stimulus. A new piece in the Wall Street Journal by CTUP's [Committee to
Unleash Prosperity] Stephen Moore and Casey Mulligan reports that the "stimulus" bill will reduce employment by between
6 and 8 million jobs because it pays people not to work. The new bill will create one of the largest expansions
in government welfare benefits since LBJ launched the failed War on Poverty (poverty won). The bill includes six months of
weekly $400 bonus unemployment benefits on top of the normal weekly benefits, a $3,000 per-child tax credit, an expansion of
food-stamp and rental-assistance benefits, $2,000 per person checks, and expanded health-care benefits. A family of
four with two unemployed parents will be eligible for benefits ranging from $100,000 to $150,000 (with no payroll tax) in
benefits on an annualized basis. In other words, the stimulus pays most unemployed people more money not to work than
to go back on the job. This isn't a safety net, it's more like a hammock.
Tax-Funded
Seattle Homeless Shelter Handing Out 'Booty Bumping Kits' for Addicts to Inject Drugs Rectally. A tax-funded
homeless shelter in Seattle, Washington is providing addicts with the technology to get a more intense, longer-lasting high
with a method that won't leave track marks. "A homeless shelter uses Seattle city funds to feed an addicts deadly
disease. Tax dollars are used to buy heroin pipes, syringes, and 'booty bumping kits,' which allow users to rectally
inject drugs for a more intense high," local KTTH radio Host Jason Rantz explains in a tweet posting video of his appearance
on Fox News Channel's "Tucker Carlson Tonight." Seattle's Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) shelter is
advertising its offerings by posting flyers, Rantz reports.
Seattle
homeless shelter buys heroin pipes with city funds, teaches rectal injection method. A Seattle-backed homeless
shelter is instructing addicts to smoke heroin and inject drugs rectally. And the shelter is using tax dollars to help
get addicts high. The Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) passes out heroin pipes and so-called "booty bumping"
kits. To alert homeless clients of their offerings, DESC posted several flyers at their Navigation Center location on
12th Avenue South. They give encouragement to addicts to use new tools and methods to continue their destructive and
deadly addictions.
8
Things You Must Know About Deeply Flawed COVID-19 Package. [#6] It Includes Opportunistic Welfare Expansions
That Create Perverse Incentives: The legislation includes benefit increases and expansions for a variety of "safety
net" programs, including unemployment insurance, Affordable Care Act subsidies, the earned income tax credit, cash welfare
payments, and more. All of this ignores the fact that federal and state governments already provide an expansive safety
net for unemployed and low-wage households at a tremendous cost to taxpayers. The economy is struggling, but is in much
better shape than it was during the Great Recession, so there is no meaningful justification for expanding the welfare
state. Worse, expanding the benefits will reduce incentives to find work, marry, or increase earnings, each of which
can reduce what the federal government provides to an individual. Another danger is that these welfare expansions could
become permanent, which would harm the nation's finances and cement anti-work incentives in place.
Pennsylvanians
receiving unemployment benefits [are being] urged to apply for other state assistance programs. Due to
Congressional legislation to extend the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment
Compensation (PEUC) programs has been delayed in Washington, D.C., the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) is
strongly encouraging the more than 500,000 Pennsylvanians receiving payments through these expiring programs to seek other
forms of assistance. According to a statement released Saturday [12/26/2020], under the current CARES Act, both
programs will stop at the end of this month and Pennsylvania claimants will not receive payments after the week ending
December 26.
Who
Is to Blame for Black Poverty? [Scroll down] The evidence seems to show that Black people
themselves appear to not want to be helped. One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over
again while expecting different results. So, are Black voters in these areas insane? They keep voting for the
likes of Sheila Jackson Lee, Maxine Waters, and Kweisi Mfume, but expect these serial grifters to suddenly start working for
them. In my eyes, that puts the blame squarely on both parties, the politicians and the voters who keep sending
them back to their offices. Is it because the way things stand now, those voters are cozily wrapped up in their blanket
of victimhood? Is it so comfy in there receiving their government subsistence handouts that they can't be bothered to
get out and do something about it? Is the alternative to this abusive, co-dependent relationship — personal
responsibility, hard work, and entrepreneurialism — just too difficult to face?
Supporting
Systemic Victimhood Is Not Caring. Socialism has never worked. It spreads misery wherever it has been
tried. Under the guise of caring, Biden's platform calls for new entitlements designed to meet all needs —
healthcare, college tuition, guaranteed income, and the list goes on. It's clear that those on the Left have no
confidence in the minorities they claim to help. To the left, minorities need a political Robin Hood ready to steal
from their neighbor to give them what they deserve but can't earn. What an affront to those they claim to help.
Unfortunately, the reality is that once a citizen is locked into government programs and funding, it's hard to get out.
They live too well. To actually work and start at the bottom and work their way up in a real job means a cut in
income. They call it "The Cliff!" Why work when being dependent can meet my needs. Why be married
when not having a husband or wife increases my benefits?
Unemployment
in NH now pays better than working for many. Someone who made the statewide average of $452 a week working in a
New Hampshire clothing store in February would receive $849 a week in unemployment today. Welcome to the world of
pandemic economics. Because of the supplemental $600 weekly federal payments, lower-wage workers actually are earning
more on unemployment right now than they did while working, said Richard Lavers, deputy commissioner at New Hampshire
Employment Security. "Obviously, that is not a dynamic that is sustainable in the long term as unemployment should not
be competing with people returning to work when it is determined safe to do so."
The
Perfect Storm Of Homelessness & Cesspools Of Filth In The Big Cities. [Scroll down] As for AFDC, all the
conservative clichés are true: the majority of AFDC recipients are promiscuous single mothers, disproportionately
Black or Hispanic, who produce children like an assembly line. Three and four generations live like this. The
fact is that most of the "homeless" today are receiving Social Security disability payments, VA benefits, or SSI, or would be
if they bothered to file a claim and stay in one place long enough for the government to send them their checks. So our
glorious masters decreed that welfare recipients, if they had no house or apartment, must be paid a temporary extra benefit,
which, originally, they could get once a year (it has at least been tightened up a bit since then). We cynical eligibility
workers assumed that the welfare recipients would deliberately spend their rent money on drugs, be evicted, and file for the
free extra money. This is exactly what happened. We immediately had a rash of evicted recipients filing for and
receiving the extra money and lounging around for weeks in motels before finding new apartments. A year later they
would repeat the process.
On Leaving
the Golden State. [Scroll down] Let us talk about the authorities for a moment. What exactly are
they doing to help? First, they threw open the borders and created sanctuary cities so that people that do not belong
here can not be molested by law enforcement. Next, they decriminalized camping in public. People camping in
public need something to do to while away the hours so they decriminalized drugs even going so far as to give away free
needles. If that were not enough, they decriminalized theft up to $950 per day. This way any homeless person can
walk into any business and brazenly steal whatever they wish without any fear of being sent to jail. Finally, they've
arranged things such that the police will no longer respond to 911 calls pertaining to vandalism or burglary. You can
watch from your bedroom window as a homeless person smashes your car windshield with a rock so as to ransack your car and if
you call 911 it will be YOU that is in trouble for tying up their emergency line as someone vandalizing and robbing your car
is a non-emergency and not worthy of any kind of response.
Former
San Francisco mayoral candidate: Years of liberal policies have caused homelessness 'tragedy'. Liberal
policies in San Francisco are inflating California's homeless crisis and driving longtime residents out of the city, former
mayoral candidate Richie Greenberg said Thursday [10/17/2019]. Appearing on "Fox & Friends" with co-hosts Brian Kilmeade
and Ainsley Earhardt, Greenberg said that as the state government has moved farther and farther to the left over the
years — adapting socialist ideals — the homeless population has only grown.
Government Help Will Never Be Enough.
My neighborhood in Shreveport, Louisiana, is a perfect example of the income inequality, poverty, and legacy of racism that
fuel so much political discussion today. [...] Allendale was poor and black a century ago, and remains so. Census
numbers tell the story: 31 percent of our nearly 3,000 residents live below the poverty line; unemployment stands at
57 percent; 43 percent of households receive food stamps; 49 percent are on Medicaid. [...] In fact, in many
cases, these programs may inflict more harm than good.
How
Did That Universal Basic Income Test Work Out? Last year we found out that the mayor of Stockton, California
was launching a test program to see how a universal basic income program might work out. Michael Tubbs had arranged for
a combination of public and private funding to allow a relatively small number of people to sign up for a monthly check with
no strings attached. (In a curious turn of events they wound up having trouble attracting enough people to the test program
because most people who received letters about it assumed it was a scam.) Tubbs did eventually get the program off the
ground, however, and it's been running for roughly a year. So how did it work out? If you listen to the program's
supporters, not too badly. Most people claimed to be using the money for basic bills, food and necessities. Or at
least that's what they're telling the people conducting the survey.
Dems
Will Make Homelessness Worse. If Democrats capture the White House in 2020, your own neighborhood is likely to
look like the disease-ridden tent slums taking over Los Angeles and San Francisco. Presidential hopeful Elizabeth
Warren insists it's wrong to ban living on the streets and in public parks. Bernie Sanders is calling for a 3% cap on
annual rent hikes, the kind of poisonous rent control law that deters new housing construction and worsens homelessness.
Countering Progressive
Nihilism. From Seattle to Portland, to San Francisco and Los Angeles, progressive politicians downgraded
property crimes, stopped enforcing vagrancy laws, and ignored drug use. [...] Seattle's politicos argue that what's needed to
ease the problem is more money. Yet the city already spends hundreds of millions yearly on homelessness —
just not enough of it on the kinds of interventions that might help. Its council passed an employer tax in 2018 meant
to raise some $120 million more per year for homeless services but had to rescind it when companies and residents
revolted. At one community meeting, a resident castigated public officials for ignoring the truth. "This is a
drug problem. I've only heard it be called a housing problem." Even the homeless themselves admit that virtually
all the city's street people are drug users. Public policy is enabling a homeless drug culture.
Baltimore,
poverty, and the liberal epidemics of Congressman Cummings. One can make the argument that [Elijah] Cummings
did nothing to make the district better off, but one can argue that this district would be poor no matter who was in that
office. That's because poor people will generally choose a candidate who supports policies that foster poverty.
The representatives of the most impoverished congressional districts share some similar policy preferences:
•
Strong support for social spending programs that undermine industriousness
• General hostility
to the interests of business
• Support of laws that make it more difficult for people (particularly
the poor) to get jobs. For example, raising the minimum wage to levels higher than the job is worth eliminates jobs for
people who need them. People are paid for what they add to the bottom line.
The list goes on. Representatives
from poor districts typically support policies that keep people poor.
How Washington Has Helped
Destroy American Civil Society and Family Life. The rise in children born out of wedlock cannot be separated from the massive expansion
of the welfare state under Johnson's Great Society. [...] A partial list of programs assisting single motherhood includes:
• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) commonly known as "food stamps"
• Women, Infants and Children Program (WIC), another food assistance program
• Child Care Assistance Program, Head Start and Early Head Start, all daycare assistance programs
• Section 8 housing assistance
• Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps single mothers pay their utilities
• Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), health insurance assistance programs
• Supplemental Security Income, often called "disability," but accessible to those without bona fide physical disabilities
• The Emergency Food Assistance Program and the National School Lunch Program
These programs act as a disincentive toward family formation.
What 'Free Money' Means to Me.
Officials in Stockton, Calif., a hard-pressed agricultural and industrial city 75 miles northeast of San Jose, are enjoying
the glow of media attention from their ongoing, first-in-America program to provide residents with a Universal Basic Income, or UBI. [...]
After more than 100 lower-income Stockton residents start receiving $500 monthly payments for 18 months, 25 of them will be telling
the public about what it has meant for them to have more cash. Those stories will be disseminated by the program's backers.
Academic researchers will provide data by 2021 that no doubt confirms people who receive extra money can buy extra stuff. Stay
tuned for the thrilling details.
States,
Feds, Offer Conflicting Claims About SNAP Work Requirement Waivers. The Trump administration is revising a
22-year-old federal regulation that has enabled states to acquire geographic area waivers exempting able-bodied adults
without dependents (ABWDs) from having to work or undergo job training to receive taxpayer-funded food stamp benefits.
Critics argue that states have been using data provided to them by the politically far-left, George Soros-funded, Center on
Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), by combining counties and geographic areas to circumvent the work requirement threshold
in counties with low unemployment.
Trump-backed
food stamps work requirement reform dropped by lawmakers. Lawmakers could vote on a new farm bill next week,
which deals a blow to part of President Trump's vision to reform the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also
referred to as food stamps. In order to get the bill passed, Republicans had to drop a proposal for a more
comprehensive work requirement for SNAP — which provides food assistance to low-income individuals —
Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., told reporters, per The Washington Post. Currently, most Americans
between the ages of 18 and 49 are required to work at least 20 hours per week in order to qualify for the program.
Colorado
is one step closer to having a supervised injection site for drugs. On Monday [11/26/2018], Denver City Council
approved a pilot program for the facility with a 12-1 vote. The proposed site now must be given the okay by the State
General Assembly. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock tweeted out support for the proposed site.
California
city council candidate is caught dropping off his wheelchair-bound mom, 86, so she can panhandle. A nonpartisan candidate
for city council in Southern California has been accused of dropping off his elderly, wheelchair-bound mother to panhandle for the last
decade, even though they're not homeless. David Chey has been caught on camera leaving Soon Chey, 86, in her wheelchair in the
downtown district of Laguna Beach with a sign that reads, 'please, help me.' 'They have a brand new car, live in a condo in Irvine,
yet beg for our help,' local business owner Heidi Miller told DailyMail.com.
L.A.
Metro will offer free rides on buses and trains on election day. In an effort to boost Los Angeles County's
historically poor voter turnout, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials agreed Thursday [10/25/2018] to offer free fares
on the sprawling bus and rail system on election day. On Nov. 6, rides on Metro's six rail lines and 2,200 buses will be
free from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. Eliminating the $1.75 fare for a day will cost the agency an estimated
$600,000, officials said.
The Editor says...
Almost everyone living in poverty is poor for a reason, or for a series of reasons — typically a lifetime of bad decisions and
regrettable actions. Moreover, poor people are most likely to be completely dependent on Big Government. They
should not be encouraged to vote, nor should they be given a free ride to the polls.
San
Jose to pay homeless $15 an hour to pick up trash. San Jose, Calif., is combating its litter problem by paying
25 homeless residents to pick up trash around the city's "hotspots." Downtown Streets Team and Goodwill, which initiated
the program, said the idea was to ultimately help participants get back on their feet, the Mercury News reported.
Algorithms
Designed to Fight Poverty Can Actually Make It Worse. Near the end of 2006 Mitch Daniels, then governor of
Indiana, announced a plan to give the state's "neediest people a better chance to escape welfare for the world of work and
dignity." He signed a $1.16-billion contract with a consortium of companies, including IBM, that would automate and
privatize eligibility processes for Indiana's welfare programs.
True
Blue Liberal California Now Leads The Nation In Poverty. It was recently revealed that the home of Jerry Brown,
Hollywood, Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris is now the most poverty stricken state in the country. Anyone who has seen
the sprawling homeless encampments of greater Los Angeles and San Francisco probably knew this would be the outcome.
Chicago
sets up universal income task force as city seeks ways to tackle poverty. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel will form
a task force that will consider implementing the so-called "universal basic income" program in the city, as the embattled
mayor seeks to cement his progressive legacy after promising not to run for another term. The idea for the program,
which would make monthly payments to a number of Chicago families without any conditions, has been floated around in the city
for months now. Back in June, Chicago's North Side Ald. Ameya Pawar introduced a resolution calling upon the
mayor to launch the pilot of the program and pay 1,000 families $500 every month.
A
Portland-Area Effort To End Homelessness Shows How Not To Do It. The Seattle Times published an interesting
story today [8/27/2018] about the failure of an attempt by the city of Portland to offer shelter to everyone who needed
it. The so-called "no turn away" policy started, as these things often do, with a genuine desire to help families
living on the street and ended two years later with a blown budget.
The Editor says...
Unfortunately, a "blown budget" is not perceived as a problem by most Democrats. That's how we have accumulated a $21 trillion national debt.
California,
Poverty Capital. According to the Census Bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure — which accounts for
the cost of housing, food, utilities, and clothing, and which includes noncash government assistance as a form of
income — nearly one out of four Californians is poor. Given robust job growth in the state and the
prosperity generated by several industries, especially the supercharged tech sector, the question arises as to why California
has so many poor people, especially when the state's per-capita GDP increased roughly twice as much as the U.S. average over
the five years ending in 2016 (12.5 percent, compared with 6.27 percent). It's not as if California policymakers have
neglected to wage war on poverty. Sacramento and local governments have spent massive amounts in the cause, for decades now.
10 Ways Big Government
Harms You. [#3] Big government makes people dependent. America has seen a widespread increase in the
amount of people on government assistance. Statistics show massive expansion in public assistance programs such as food
stamps, disability, extended unemployment insurance, Medicaid, and health insurance subsidies. Additionally, there are
record number "baby boomers" hitting retirement age and their dependence on Social Security is increasing the amount of
people dependent on the government as well. Never before in American history, not even during the Great Depression,
have we seen such a large expansion of government programs. As more and more people get on government assistance, you
will see less and less people fight against the abuses of government. Such dependency instills fear amongst the
populous that if there is a push back against the government, they will then lose the benefits that they enjoy. Once
this dependency is created, a tragic division occurs within society. People who are not receiving government benefits
begin to resent the people who are receiving the assistance. They see themselves as "doing all the work" or "providing"
and others happily living off their efforts.
Black
Pastor Calls for Crushing the Evil Welfare State. Alex Newman spoke with Reverend Matthew Cummings about
overcoming the welfare state that has swelled in the U.S. [Video clip]
Wise
Giants and Arrogant Dwarves. [Scroll down] Welfare programs and transfer payments have created a
dependent class who don't have to work. As a result, we have a low workforce participation rate at the same time as a
shortage of workers. Our 1850 farmer could have predicted that outcome. Tradition and experience taught his
generation that given human nature, if you give somebody something for nothing, he will soon expect something for nothing as
a right, and his character will be degraded by sloth and dependency.
Sen.
Kamala Harris pushes Rent Relief Act, the ultimate jackpot for 'free stuff Dems'. California Sen. Kamala
Harris, a big-government Democrat, wants to subsidize the rent of Americans who live in apartments, condos or townhouses they
cannot afford. "Nationally, over 21M Americans spend more than 30% of their paychecks on rent. That's absurd,"
she tweeted Friday. "I introduced the #RentReliefAct to help ease the burden. This equals more money in people's
pockets at the end of the year."
California's
'foreclosure capital' to give away $500 a month to residents in experimental welfare program. A California city
is set to become the first in the nation to embark on an experiment of Universal Basic Income, paying 100 residents $500 a
month without any conditions. The program's purpose is to eventually ensure that no one in Stockton, with a population
of 300,000, lives in poverty. The receivers of the cash will be able to spend the money on anything they want without
any strings attached. It will launch by 2019 and the 100 fortunate residents will receive the cash for a full 18 months
as part of its testing phase before deciding whether to roll it out across Stockton.
Handing them out like candy.
Seattle
authorities luring homeless off the streets with plane tickets, rent payments. Seattle is testing out other ideas, such as
using tax payer money to purchase airfare for homeless people looking to stay with family in other places. Last week, two people at the
camp accepted plane tickets to Kansas to stay with friends in a more stable housing situation using the taxpayers' money. Now [Mayor
Jenny] Durkan is willing to dig deeper than just covering homeless people's airfare. She is now proposing paying two months rent or even
paying car repairs in order to keep people off the city's streets or give them opportunities to relocate. Durken has described her plan
of action as a diversion service.
Housing Crisis
May Be Inevitable, Thanks To Government Meddling. The Fed, worried about ultralow 3.8% unemployment and rising
incomes, has signaled it could raise rates as many as seven times between now and the end of 2019. Not only would new
buyers no longer qualify to buy homes, but homeowners who bought during the Fed's zero-interest rate days might get a severe
shock as payments surge and buyer demand dries up.
The
Dark Side Of Welfare Programs. What would you think of a tax system that imposed effective marginal tax rates
of up to 80% on low-income families? That's what exists today thanks to various federal benefit programs that phase out
while income rises. At a recent panel on poverty, the Congressional Budget Office made a presentation showing how
income and benefit programs interact in ways that can heavily discourage work.
Government
removal of children from their parents didn't start with Trump. The government has routinely taken children
from their parents for the past 50 years; not in increments of 2,000 as indicated in the tabloid, but by the millions.
It began with the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which included sex on it its list of categories to receive
discrimination protection. This law neutered the American male in general, but the African-American community
experienced its immediate implementation. The government fostered unwed motherhood through financial inducements made
possible by the welfare system, which gave women incentives to have children if they weren't married. Even well-meaning
young couples who planned to get married opted for the welfare system because it meant tens of thousands of dollars in
increased income over the life of the young family. Fathers lived with parents, other family members and friends, for
if welfare workers found even a pair of pants hanging in the closet of the mother, she would lose her welfare payments.
This was the first step in separating children from parents. The father was removed from the home.
Feds find
NYCHA managers lied for years about squalid conditions; City agrees to pay $2 billion. NYCHA managers have for
years used carefully crafted lies and elaborate deception to cover up the squalid condition of public housing, filing false
documents, tricking federal inspectors and betraying the 400,000 tenants who have long endured heartbreaking conditions and
the growing sense that nothing will ever change. A blistering complaint made public Monday [6/11/2018] by Manhattan U.S.
Attorney Geoffrey Berman ripped the lid off of the city Housing Authority's longstanding culture of deceit, revealing a long
bureaucratic tradition of lying about NYCHA's failures to address everything from toxic lead paint to mold infestation to rat burrows.
America's King of Poverty.
I know it is not a pleasant topic but let's take just a moment and think about poverty in this country. Which state do
you think has the highest poverty rate? Must be Mississippi or Alabama or one of those Southern states. No it
ain't. The state with the highest poverty rate is... wait for it, CALIFORNIA!!! Yep, our progressive, income
redistributing state which accounts for 12% of the country's population is home to about 1 in 3 of all U.S. welfare
recipients. Our poverty rate exceeds 20% when the national average is around 15%. It is not as though California policy
makers have neglected to wage their assault on poverty. Since 1992 California has spent nearly $1 trillion on
benefit programs. Clearly it hasn't worked. Then again paying poor people to be poor never does.
Medicaid Expansion
Will Harm the Poor. Like all Democratic programs, it's about power and money. Obamacare incentivizes
expansion states to shift Medicaid's focus to able-bodied adults by paying over 90 percent of their coverage costs, while the
federal share of costs for traditional Medicaid patients remains below 60 percent. This does not mean, however, that
doctors and hospitals will receive more money. Providers will continue to be paid less by Medicaid than the cost of
treatment whether the patients are expansion or traditional enrollees. The extra money will go to political slush funds
and insurance companies.
Seattle
mayor unveils aggressive plan to increase temporary homeless housing, shelters. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan
announced an aggressive expansion the city's available shelter beds on Wednesday in an effort to "show results" the city has
a plan to get people off the streets. "I understand that this city is demanding results and so I have a plan to move
500 people or more inside within 60 to 90 days," Durkan told a crowd gathered at a new tiny village encampment
in North Seattle. The plan increases the city's available shelter space by 25 percent and would serve an additional
522 people every night. "This is a surge to move as many people as we can so they can get services from the city,"
Durkan said during a briefing to reporters on Tuesday. "This is the largest increase of shelter capacity since the
emergency has been declared."
Medicaid and the Democratic
War on Work. When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that states could experiment with work
requirements as a prerequisite for Medicaid eligibility, the Democrats denounced the policy as racist and cruel. They didn't
explain how such requirements could possibly be racist in states whose Medicaid populations are nearly 100 percent white.
Nor did they say what is cruel about asking Medicaid enrollees to do something that will, according to numerous studies, improve their
well-being. The science says that work will be good for their physical, psychological, and fiscal health. So, why have
the Democrats declared war on work?
Guaranteed
Basic Income Punishes Work, Subsidizes Sloth. The latest "big idea" in the U.S. is the Universal Basic
Income — a guaranteed income for all. Progressives of course like the idea, but even some conservatives and
libertarians do, too. Only one problem: It doesn't work. Ask Finland, a highly progressive Scandinavian
country that has an ongoing guaranteed income experiment, but is abandoning it. Starting in 2017, the two-year Finnish
program selected a random group of 2,000 unemployed people and gave them a monthly income roughly equal to about $678 for
doing ... nothing. The government hoped that many participants would flood back into the labor market. But
Finland is already backing off.
$24M
housing, 'service center' for homeless planned in downtown Nashville. Mayor David Briley's administration on
Wednesday revealed a proposal meant to address downtown Nashville's growing homeless population through the creation of a $24 million
"services center" and low-income apartments to help people with nowhere to live. The plan hinges on a land swap with luxury housing
developer Tony Giarratana, who as part of the deal would acquire nearly an acre of Metro-owned parkland where homeless people currently
congregate at Church Street and Sixth Avenue North. Giarratana hopes to build what would be the city's tallest residential building
on that prime real estate. In return, he would construct a taxpayer-funded, eight-story affordable housing building with about
100 units above the services center on his parking lot at 301 James Robertson Parkway, if final plans are approved.
Homeless
may get mobile showers at Los Angeles Metro stations. As the homeless population continues to grow in Los
Angeles, the agency that operates public transportation in the county is considering putting showers in or near some of its
train stations in an effort to promote hygiene. Metro's Board of Directors unanimously approved a motion on Thursday
following a four-month study to examine a pilot hygiene and mobile shower program, which would also examine incorporating
public restrooms at all new rail stations on the system.
Project Freedom.
Several key Trump administration proposals, taken together, would help cure an absurdity so ingrained and ideology-caked in
American society that almost no one discusses it anymore: while millions of unskilled immigrants sneak illegally into
America to do jobs that Americans won't do, Americans won't do them because the government pays them as much for idleness as
an honest day's labor pays.
L.A.
County wants to help build guest houses in backyards — for homeless people. "Not in my backyard"
protests helped block homeless housing in Temple City, delayed it in Boyle Heights and, last month, killed Orange County's
plan to relocate homeless people to shelters. Now, Los Angeles officials want to turn NIMBYism on its head —
by paying property owners to put houses for homeless people in their backyards. In August, the county Board of
Supervisors approved a $550,000 pilot program to build a handful of small backyard houses, or upgrade illegally converted
garages, for homeowners who agree to host a homeless person or family. Then in February, Bloomberg Philanthropies
awarded L.A. a $100,000 Mayor's Challenge grant to study the feasibility of backyard homeless units within the city limits.
Facing
backlash, California county rescinds homeless shelter plan. Facing a public backlash, officials in Southern
California's Orange County rescinded their plan Tuesday [3/27/2018] for emergency homeless shelters in three cities.
The homeless shelters in Irvine, Huntington Beach and Laguna Niguel were to house up to 400 people, the Orange County
Register reported. Laguna Niguel ranks seventh among the nation's wealthiest cities, according to a 2016 Register
report. "They're just dumping these poor people in our neighborhoods and communities where there are like six schools
and, you know, little children walking to school," Irvine resident Radhika Athlaye told ABC7.
LA
Considers Ambitious Proposal To Provide Housing For Every Homeless Person. The Los Angeles City Council Friday [3/23/2018]
is considering a motion that would enact a plan to provide housing for every transient in the city, as it continues to grapple with a
housing shortage which has spiked rents and sent thousands of people into homelessness. The motion, introduced last month by
Councilmen Mike Bonin and Marqueece Harris-Dawson, says there is little evidence that anything is being done to create or improve
shelters for the homeless in the city and that a true sense of emergency is needed to deal with the problem.
De Blasio
Making Homeless So Comfortable They Won't Leave The Shelter. Homeless persons in New York City on average
stayed nearly 100 days longer in shelters in 2017 than four years ago, according to an upcoming report from the Manhattan
Institute. Under Mayor Bill de Blasio, the average adult homeless person stayed in the shelter for 383 days in 2017
compared to the 293-day average stay in 2013. "The more comfortable an adult or a family feels in a temporary housing
situation, the weaker the motivation could become to move back into the community," Stephen Eide, senior fellow at the
Manhattan Institute, told the New York Post, which first reported on Manhattan Institute's study expected to be released
this week.
6 Points
to Consider in the Debate About Homelessness. It's amazing what a civil rights lawsuit and some federal
judicial muscle have done to force officials in California to address the vexing homelessness problem in Orange County,
especially in the dreary encampments along the Santa Ana River trail. Judge David Carter excoriated county and city officials
during an unorthodox court proceeding on Tuesday that produced in hours an agreement that had been elusive during weeks of
wrangling. The deal lets local governments clear out the sprawling camps in exchange for providing 30-day emergency
vouchers for people to stay at motels. The Orange County Board of Supervisors also announced that it will soon provide
more than 300 additional beds or tents for the homeless at facilities around the county.
The Editor says...
First of all, the "emergency vouchers" are only postponing the problem for a month, and the problem is not an emergency.
Second, moving a homeless bum to a motel does not change the bum. It only adds to the taxpayers' burden and diminishes the
marketability of the motel.
L.A.
County's homeless problem is worsening despite billions from tax measures. Los Angeles County's homeless
population is increasing faster than the supply of new housing, even with the addition of thousands of beds in the last two
years and millions of dollars beginning to flow in from two ballot measures targeting the crisis, according to a long-awaited
report by the region's homelessness agency. [...] As a result, a $73-million annual shortfall in funding for the county's
comprehensive homelessness program could more than triple, a [Los Angeles] Times analysis of the report found.
California's
Paradox: More Immigration, More Poverty. California is a land of untold opulence. Hollywood's
glitter dazzles the gawking masses, while the world's most profitable companies, Google, Apple, and Facebook, funnel cash
into the Golden State from every corner of the earth. And yet California is also desperately poor. One-in-five
Californians live in poverty, the state's income inequality is worse than Mexico's, and untold thousands live on the
streets. California is a dystopia. How can so much wealth and poverty coexist? This is the California
paradox. It was not always this way. California used to be home to America's largest and most affluent middle
class. Now it is a playground for the rich and a prison for the poor. How did the Golden State become America's
poverty capital?
Philadelphia
aims to become first US city to legalize safe injection sites. Some Philadelphia officials want to make history
by pushing an effort to make the city the first in the U.S. to allow drug users to shoot up at a medically supervised facility.
The city overdose-related deaths peaked last year to about 1,200. And city health officials want to cut down on the
overdoses and deaths through this unique — and controversial — approach. "We haven't seen
a public health emergency like this in the last century," said Thomas Farley, Health Commissioner for Philadelphia.
"It's time for us to rethink our assumptions, and consider options we hadn't seen before.
Stockton's
'Basic Income' Plan Diverts City From Its Real Duties. [Scroll down] In fact, one of California's most
impoverished cities, Stockton, is working on a proposal that would provide a "Universal Basic Income" to a small number of
residents. Instead of a million bucks, the city — thanks to a grant from some Bay Area tech
entrepreneurs — wants to hand out $500 a month for two years without any limits on how it's spent. It's not
as controversial as Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs' proposal last summer "that pays people not to commit crimes," as KCRA
reported. But now Tubbs is back with this latest "let's just pay people" plan. The income idea is backed by a
group that believes "cash is an effective way" to rebuild the American middle class. It's a pilot project that will
help evaluate how this type of program works. [...] If this idea takes hold, it will be followed by demands to increase the
payments. [...] But my biggest fear is what it will do to the already eroded concept of work. Many people prefer to do
nothing if someone else will pay their bills.
Playgrounds for Elites.
Homelessness has been on the rise in virtually all large cities, including Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, even as
it declines elsewhere. Despite numerous exposés on the growth of suburban poverty, the poverty rate in core
cities remains twice as high; according to the 2010 census, more than 80 percent of all urban-core population growth in
the previous decade was among the poor. For all the talk about inner-city gentrification, concentrated urban poverty
remains a persistent problem, with 75 percent of high-poverty neighborhoods in 1970 still classified that way four decades
later. Clearly, then, the urban renaissance has not lifted all, or even most, boats.
Atlanta
Officials Shift Homeless Into Airport As Amazon Searches For HQ2. The homeless population at the Hartsfield-Jackson
Atlanta International Airport (ATL) has nearly tripled since the start of winter, said Fox 5. Atlanta police officers
working at the world's busiest airport have sounded the alarm about the deteriorating conditions for travelers caused by the
increasing homeless population. While the homeless cannot pass through the security checkpoint without a passport or plane
ticket, that has not deterred them from setting up camp across the North and South terminals as well as the connecting Atrium.
De
Blasio plans to open homeless shelter on 'Billionaire's Row'. Mayor Bill de Blasio blindsided Manhattan's
"Billionaire's Row" with a quietly announced plan to open a men's homeless shelter in the former Park Savoy Hotel. The
building at 158 W. 58th St. — which stands back-to-back against the city's most expensive apartment building,
One57 — is being converted into housing for 150 residents and is scheduled to open in March, the city's Department
of Homeless Services said Wednesday [1/17/2018]. Hizzoner's plan — part of a program to create 90 new shelters
across all five boroughs — was revealed last week in letters to local elected officials.
City
offering to pay homeless a year's worth of rent if they leave town. The city wants the homeless to get out of
town — and is offering to pay a full year's rent to those willing to abandon the five boroughs. Under a
pilot program quietly launched last month, shelter residents who have been in the system for at least 90 days and have a
source of income can get 12 months of rent paid up-front virtually anywhere they can find an apartment. Their travel
expenses to vamoose would also be paid under a program already in place known as Project Reconnect.
Santa
Ana creates homeless czar position as it works to combat growing issue. As Orange County municipalities take
steps to address growing homeless populations within their borders, the city with one of the largest concentrations is
doubling down on its efforts to keep the issue from getting even more out of hand. Santa Ana council members on
Tuesday, Sept. 19, unanimously approved a homeless prevention, intervention and mitigation plan and created a city
homeless services manager position.
Costa
Mesa considers adding 'spartan' restrooms to deal with growing homeless issues. Faced with continuing issues
with the local homeless population, officials in Costa Mesa have again floated the idea of installing new public restrooms
that would provide a hygienic and safe place for transients to use. City Councilman John Stephens broached the topic
during Friday's meeting of a liaison committee made up of representatives from the city, Costa Mesa Sanitary District, Mesa
Water and Newport-Mesa Unified School districts. The agencies, he said, could consider a pilot project to install one
or two new restrooms away from parks where families gather. No specific locations were mentioned during the meeting.
Houston
school district will give students 3 free meals a day for an entire year in wake of Harvey flooding. The Houston Independent
School District announced Wednesday [8/30/2017] all students will eat all school meals for free during the 2017-2018 school year. The
approval came from the United States Department of Agriculture and the Texas Department of Agriculture to waive the required application
process for the National School Lunch/Breakfast Program. HISD says the free meals come in the wake of flooding from Tropical Storm
Harvey. "Despite the federal waiver, HISD is still asking parents and guardians to complete and return the application," HISD stated
in a press release.
'Tenant
rights' for the homeless: an absurd new low in NYC liberalism. Blue York City liberalism can get so nutty, the
laws and rights turn outright fratricidal — such as in a suit from the Legal Aid Society demanding equal tenant
rights for the homeless. As Carl Campanile reported in Monday's Post, the LAS wants homeless whom the city houses in
regular apartments to have full protection under the rent laws — even though they pay no rent.
Public
defenders push more DAs to ease up on turnstile jumpers. The movement to stop prosecuting subway fare-beaters,
announced recently by the Manhattan district attorney and soon to be adopted in Brooklyn, must be expanded citywide, public
defenders argue. The Legal Aid Society, the Bronx Defenders, Queens Law Associates and other groups have joined efforts
to pressure prosecutors in Queens and the Bronx to get onboard with the cause, which advocates say will help unclog the
courts. Advocates say arresting turnstile jumpers unfairly disadvantages the city's poor population.
Turnstile Jumping Okay
in New York. Good news for fare-beaters on the New York subway system. It has been discovered that
enforcing the law against jumping turnstiles disadvantages the poor.
The soft bigotry
of Denver's public pooping laws. 'The Denver City Council has voted unanimously to decriminalize a number of
offenses, including defecating in public. Also, urinating in public. Camping on public or private land without
permission. Panhandling. And lying across public rights-of-way, such as sidewalks. Democrat Mayor Michael
Hancock and city officials explained the new ordinances are designed to protect immigrants — legal and the other
kind — from "unintended consequences." These consequences were fines and longer jail terms, as has been
customary in most places for violating the behavioral norms of civilized American society.
How
Food Stamps Subverted Democracy, Part 1. The federal government is now feeding more than 100 million
Americans. The vast increase in dependency fundamentally changes the relationship of Washington to the citizenry.
The more Americans rely on handouts, the more difficult it becomes to roll back politicians' power over those who do not.
There was no good reason for the vast expansion of dependency. The history of the federal food-aid boom is a story of
political conniving, bureaucratic bungles, and media collusion. Forty years ago, when the "hunger revolution" in American
politics began, average people would have scoffed at the notion that the government must intervene to supply so many meals.
But in the subsequent decades, politicians captured new prerogatives to take over far more lives.
Legalized
marijuana turns Colorado resort town into homeless magnet. From his sidewalk vantage point in front of an
outdoor equipment store in downtown Durango, Colo., Matthew Marinseck has seen a transformation in this mountain resort
town. The picturesque town near the New Mexico border, once a vibrant, upscale community dotted with luxury hotels, is
being overrun by panhandlers — thanks, in part, to the legalization of marijuana. The town suddenly became a
haven for recreational pot users, drawing in transients, panhandlers and a large number of homeless drug addicts, according
to officials and business owners. Many are coming from New Mexico, Arizona and even New York.
Sacramento public housing residents
just got free Zipcars. Residents at three public housing areas now have a mini-fleet of free Zipcars to make
their way around Sacramento. On Friday, Sacramento launched a pilot program that put eight shared electric Kia Souls at
public housing sites. Up to 300 residents can apply for on-demand access to the vehicles, with no charge for maintenance,
insurance or juicing up the battery. The program is funded through a $1.3 million grant from the California Air
Resources Board using cap-and-trade funds that businesses pay to offset their carbon emissions.
Chicago approves IDs for illegal immigrants.
The Windy City has a whole host of issues to deal with these days, many of them centered around the fact that you're more likely to be murdered there than in
Fallujah on any given day. But rather than worrying about pesky little problems like that, the city council has decided to go after the really big ticket
items on the agenda. One of these is to begin creating and distributing special municipal ID cards for various "underserved" groups including illegal
immigrants. What could possibly go wrong?
A
homeless family needed shelter. D.C. gave them bus tickets to North Carolina. The nation's capital is one
of the few places in the country that guarantee homeless families a right to shelter. So when Chanda Davis faced
eviction last winter from the apartment in Southeast Washington she shared with her four children, she thought she could
count on D.C.'s Department of Human Services for help. Davis got help she wasn't expecting. Instead of putting a roof
over her family's head, the city put bus tickets in their hands — and sent them on a one-way trip to North Carolina.
These
are the 30 posh hotels where NYC places its homeless. The city has used 30 Manhattan hotels to house the
homeless, including the iconic New Yorker, the upscale Excelsior and the tourist-friendly The Manhattan at Times
Square. The city's use of Manhattan hotels shot up 58 percent in the last year as bookings expanded from the outer
boroughs to prime tourist destinations in Midtown and Soho. And the homeless lodging has reached beyond fleabag
flophouses to boutique hotels and brand names sought by visitors who don't necessarily want to mingle with the down-and-out.
"We rode the elevator up to our room with homeless people who were barefoot," one guest at the Art Deco New Yorker hotel
griped on the site Trip Advisor in August.
What
Has Obama Done to Us, and How Was He Able to Do It? Undoubtedly, one reason why so many people vote left is because, for this or that
reason, they are dependent upon some sort of government largesse. As Mitt Romney noted in 2012, 47% of the American populace receive some kind
of government benefit, and are therefore unlikely to react favorably to the prospect of that beneficence being curtailed or eliminated. After
four more years of Obamaism, that percentage may actually be higher. Republicans will find it hard to wean people from the government benefits
bestowed during Obama's presidency.
You'll
never guess which political party leads in poverty and crime. I'd be more a lot more snarky if the human toll
wasn't so devastating. The sad fact remains: progressives don't get it and never will. Their policies are based
on emotion, not facts. Feelings, not human experience. Their policies are those of a cult, not a real political party.
41,000
Welfare Recipients Just Received Brutal News. Many Americans have long advocated for welfare reform, to prevent people from
being able to spend their entire lives on welfare without ever looking for a job or attempting to better their situation. Liberals
fight this tooth and nail, because Democrats typically aren't looking to help people improve their lives — they want to keep them reliant
on the government. But unfortunately for liberals, Missouri enacted welfare reform and tens of thousands of people are no longer eligible.
Hope
and humility. Politicians promote faith in themselves because it helps their careers and feeds their
egos. When was the last time you heard a politician say only you can make your life better by the choices you
make? Have you ever heard a politician say, "We are clearing the field of liberty as much as we can so that you have
the best opportunity to succeed at whatever you believe your gifts qualify you for"? If politicians started talking like
that people might have more faith in themselves and politicians would see their influence and power decline significantly.
Living on the welfare cliff.
A single parent in Lake County who earns $12 per hour brings home just over $22,000 in net pay. However, that same single parent is eligible for an
array of welfare benefits as follows:
• Refundable tax credits from the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC, the Additional Child Tax
Credit, and the Illinois Earned Income Tax Credit
• Food assistance, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP,
food packages for the Women, Infants and Children program, or WIC, and the National School Lunch Program
• Housing assistance from the
Housing Choice Voucher Program
• Subsidized child care services
• Medical assistance for both the parent and
her children
When you add up the value of those potential benefits, it comes to an astounding $39,534, bringing the total net receivables — in terms
of earned income and benefits — to $61,655. In comparison, suppose you earn $18 per hour, bringing home about $33,000 in net pay. That is a gain
of about $11,000 in earned income. However, your potential welfare benefits will drop drastically to $5,236 from $39,534, for a loss of more than
$34,000. Why would any sane person voluntarily give up $34,000 in benefits to gain only $11,000?
New
York City to pay residents who house their homeless relatives or friends almost $2,000 a month in 'Home for the Holidays'
campaign. The city of New York is willing to pay friends and families of homeless people thousands of dollars
to let them stay in their homes over the holiday season. The city rolled out its 'Home for the Holidays' program this
week, which will be offered to 5,000 families who have been living in homeless shelters for at least 90 days. Every
family chosen for the program will be placed with friends or relatives, and given a $500 voucher to 'help them get settled'.
Low-income
families going upscale at taxpayer expense. The Obama administration is changing the program through which very
low-income families are paid rent subsidies at taxpayer expense so they can live in more upscale neighborhoods. HUD
Secretary Julian Castro recently confirmed the plan to raise the rent subsidies. "Today, we embark upon a new approach
to offer more choice and greater opportunity for families struggling to find a decent place to call home," Castro said.
"Moving to this approach will offer these voucher-holding families more opportunities to move into higher opportunity
neighborhoods with better housing, better schools and higher paying jobs."
HUD
Gives Poor More Rent Money to Live in "Higher Opportunity" Areas With "Lower Poverty". To help "very low-income
families" live in better neighborhoods, the Obama administration has issued a sweeping order requiring the government to pay
more for their housing so they can move to areas of higher opportunity and lower poverty. The final rule was announced
in the federal register this month by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the agency that annually
spends tens of billions on rent for the poor. A chunk of the money, an estimated $18 billion according to the
Congressional Budget Office, goes to a program called Housing Choice Voucher (HCV), which is funded by HUD and administered
by local public housing agencies. It allows recipients to choose housing in the private market and pays a set amount
based on fair market rent for a metropolitan area. Under the new rule, which goes into effect in January, fair market
rents will now be calculated by ZIP code so Uncle Sam will pay a lot more for people to live in nicer areas.
Medieval
America. Today, a fifth of American households have zero or negative net worth. The shrinking middle classes
struggle to service trillions of dollars in consumer and student debt to big banks — in the manner of medieval peasants.
In the medieval world, impoverished serfs pledged loyalty to barons in exchange for their food and housing on the manor.
In the modern world, progressive government is the bastion that distributes entitlements on the expectation that the masses show
their political fealty at election time.
Locked
In. Let me tell you about "lock-in" — a practice at Pine Ridge, the Indian reservation in South
Dakota. One weekend a month, a particular school has lock-in. Literally, they lock the children into the school,
where they play games and so on. Lock-in is timed for the arrival of government checks. Why? Because when
adults receive the checks, they have money to booze up, and when they do, they are likelier than ever to abuse the
children. Hence, lock-in, for the kids' protection. And, frankly, they could use this every other day of the
month, too.
$15 hammer. I am angry at the continued (seeming)
acceptance of the new normal of Obamanomics. [...] The unemployment rate is a sham. Obamanomics has produced perverse incentives
which are accelerating decline and dependency. Where an employee today had a paycheck and insurance, tomorrow, they'll have unemployment
and ObamaCare.
$10
Mil to End "Diaper Disparity" after Free Diaper Laws Fail Twice in Congress. The multi-million-dollar
initiative is being promoted by the White House as essential to eradicate a national "diaper divide" and the goal is to
abolish "diaper disparity" by expanding access to affordable diapers for America's poorest families. Behind this
high-priced mission is Cecilia Muñoz, the White House Domestic Policy Director. A renowned open borders lobbyist
in Washington D.C., Muñoz was vice president of National Council of La Raza (NCLR) before Obama brought her on as White
House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. A few years later the president promoted her to the more powerful and
prestigious post of top advisor on domestic issues. Muñoz wields tremendous power, coordinating the policy-making
process and supervising the execution of domestic policy in the White House. If she wants Uncle Sam to give poor families
free diapers, it's safe to bet that it will happen even if Congress has twice nixed the scandalous idea.
Dumb, Dumber and Democrat.
The Democrats purposely created a narrative of nasty and divisive class envy, destroyed our educational system particularly
through Common Core, and wildly helped millions of people become addicted to a life of entitlement. These do-gooders
demonically created a dependent constituency who will obediently be there when it is time to pull the voting lever, whether
legal or not. The two pillars sustaining today's Democratic Party are the elites and the losers. Remember the so-called
and once important "middle class"? Although occasionally still referenced in stump speeches, these hard-working blue-collar
factory laborers, veterans, police and fire-fighters have been relegated to the back of the Democrats' busload of newly-found
victims. "Black Lives Matter," men in dresses and harboring dangerous illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities are the new
protected class and assured Democrat voters.
Hawaii
may bring back traditional grass huts for homeless. Hawaii lawmakers are considering a unique solution to the
housing crisis: They want to make it possible for people to live in traditional Hawaiian grass huts.
The Danger of a 'Right' to
Live on the Streets. Across the United States, temperatures are plunging, making it deadly for the homeless who refuse to go
into shelters. Each year, hundreds of these vagrants die from exposure on the streets. Yet blinded by progressive ideology,
so-called "advocates" for the homeless — including the Obama administration — are defending a "right" to stay on
the streets. Even if it means freezing to death.
The Editor says...
It's called survival of the fittest. A homeless person should be locked up year-round if he or she is truly incapable of making
competent decisions about his or her self-preservation. On the other hand, in the absence of any criminal activity (such as tresspassing or
vagrancy), one should have the freedom to live wherever one pleases, at one's own risk.
New
Louisiana governor to undo welfare reform. Hope and change is coming to Louisiana after the defeat of David
Vitter last month. John Bel Edwards swept to victory by a double digit margin and let everyone know that he was going to
start changing up the game. Now, well before he's even taken the oath of office, Edwards is prepping for some of his first
big reforms in the financially troubled state. One of the top items on his docket is getting rid of the work requirement
for able bodied food stamp recipients.
Obama's
Real Legacy: Ten Ticking Time Bombs. [#7] A "food stamp" nation. Over the past decade, the food stamps program has
nearly doubled in size from 26 million to 46 million recipients (one in seven Americans) and more than doubled in cost from
$29 billion to $64 billion a year. When the next recession hits, these figures will swell to historic highs.
Democrats oppose common-sense reforms. Prognosis: more dependency.
The
7 Keys To Trapping As Many Americans As Possible In Poverty. You want to make as many Americans poor as possible? Then start
by... [#2] Encouraging Dependency: You want to keep people poor over the long haul? Then get them dependent on a government payment
that will always keep them poor. Start them young! Get as many kids as possible used to taking handouts with free breakfast and lunch
programs. Then when they're adults, make it as easy as possible to get on the dole and stay on it. In fact, you should spend millions on
advertising campaigns letting people know that they're eligible to become dependent on the government. This keeps people stuck in a no man's
land where they're still poor, but they're just comfortable enough that they don't feel compelled to work to get more.
Hawaii
declares state of emergency for homelessness crisis. Hawaii Gov. David Ige has declared a state of emergency to
deal with the state's homelessness crisis just days after city and state officials cleared one of the nation's largest
homeless encampments.
Hawaii
Declares State of Emergency for Homelessness — Guess What Their Solution Is. Hawaii [...] now has
the worst homeless problem in the country. What do you suppose causes that? With the highest cost of living in the
nation, it is small wonder that if someone falls on hard times that they wind up on the street. It's also a magnet,
climate wise, for those who know they will be on the streets. The Hawaiian government is notoriously controlled by
Democrats. Their progressive policies have created this mess. But, never fear, they've come up with a
solution! Yep, they are going to take real estate that no one else wants and put what they call 'transitional
housing' on it. This 'housing' is made up of shipping containers, divided in half to form a duplex of sorts.
Poverty
Pimps Owe Middle Class $22 Trillion in Reparations. Who are the poverty pimps? Any politicians who have ever
voted for legislation that took money out of Americans' pockets and put it in failed programs in the manufactured War on Poverty.
Any activists, including clergy, who have lobbied for more funding for failed programs. Any progressive radicals who have
called for an end to capitalism in favor of creating a majority of low-income workers. Any nonprofits that have brought in
billions over the last 50 years in the name of eradicating poverty.
Some People Choose
to Be Homeless. The Obama Department of Justice argued last week that a Boise, Idaho, law against "public
sleeping in a city without adequate shelter space constitutes criminalizing homelessness itself, in violation of the Eighth
Amendment." In a statement of interest filed in federal court, the Obama administration asserted that banning sleeping
and camping in public places constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment."
The Tragic and Complete Collapse of Racial
Relations. Obama in recompense for favoring the aristocratic elite feels that by expanding food stamps, disability
insurance, housing, legal, and education subsidies, etc., the lower classes will be satisfied in lieu of a high-paying job on a
fracking rig, in construction, or welding on the Keystone pipeline.
Bernie
Sanders: Pathetic and Outdated. People need to work. People need to contribute to the improvement of society.
The old leftists like FDR still had some element of the work ethic in their worldviews. But the leftists of our generation
are now locked into a hopeless political schizophrenia where they promote state-managed giveaway programs and at the same time
call for vast work programs. The work ethic core value is the polar opposite of the entitlement mentality. [...] Additionally,
manual labor is no longer considered a fit activity for citizens who are used to instant food, instant information through the
Internet, and instant money through the welfare system. Manual labor takes time, and, well... it is laborious.
Food
banks struggle to meet surprising demand. Food banks across the country are seeing a rising demand for free
groceries despite the growing economy, leading some charities to reduce the amount of food they offer each family.
Politicians are insulated from the bums in the street:
Cops keep
de Blasio in a bum-free bubble. No wonder he doesn't think there's a problem. The
police have been laboring to keep Mayor de Blasio in a bum-free bubble — clearing nuisance-causing
vagrants from his view at Gracie Mansion and as he travels in the city. On Wednesday [7/15/2015],
two hours before de Blasio was due to walk through Washington Square Park, cops arrived en masse to
clear out the quality-of-life-ruining bums who drink from paper bags, sprawl on benches and pee in public.
Bums think
de Blasio is the best mayor ever. Bums across the city hailed Mayor Bill de Blasio on
Monday for relaxing enforcement against homeless panhandlers, saying it hasn't been this good for
them in years. "I want to thank de Blasio for taking it easy on us. It's easier for me to get by.
Because of him, nobody bothers me," said Phil Zasel, 63, who was hanging out near Bellevue Hospital with several
sacks of belongings. "It's better out here now. It's the best time to be homeless. The weather
is nice. I feel like I'm in California. So I'd rather be out here until it gets cold."
Government
Crushes People — Then Writes Them Checks. [Scroll down] The 2008
global economic collapse was caused just about entirely by government. Banks were forced for decades
to make hundreds of thousands of home loans to people everyone knew couldn't pay them back. The bad
papers mounted and mounted — and when the market teetered ever so slightly, the Everest of
government garbage avalanched down and buried the planet. Our government's response —
was to cut checks for hundreds of billions of dollars to the institutions they forced to make the loans.
Getting mad at the banks is like shooting someone — and then getting mad at them for bleeding
on you. This was entirely government's fault.
Make
people WORK for food stamps? New Mexico plan has libs WAILING. Liberals usually just
want to give you things, especially when they are paid for by other taxpayers, without expecting you
to work for it at all. It makes you dependent on them and keep voting for them.
The shrinking workforce of Obama's America.
Reagan gave us an enormous and highly productive work force, and that's why there was so much prosperity during his
time in office. Barack Obama has a very different idea about what life should be like in America. And
he's achieving his vision too. Obama thinks it's a shame when people have to work too hard, and he wants the
government to enact policies that give people more free stuff in exchange for less work.
Obama Has Officially Turned America Into Food Stamp
Nation. Since 2008 when Obama took office, the number of Americans relying on food stamps has doubled. Now,
one CEO is tired of seeing America being turned into a food stamp nation by the entitlement-happy liberals and says big changes
need to happen to get Americans back to work. Andy Puzder CEO of CKE Restaurants said the problem is that people actually
are working less to keep their entitlements and even giving up promotions because they are afraid if they earn more they will
lose benefits and won't be able to feed their kids.
Garcetti
shifts stance, won't enforce tough new homeless measures. [Los Angeles] Mayor Eric Garcetti backed off
controversial legislation targeting homeless encampments, saying late Tuesday [6/30/2015] he would not stop the measures
from becoming law but would block enforcement until the City Council softens some provisions. Garcetti had originally
said he supported the laws, passed by the council last week, which would make it easier to seize and destroy homeless people's
belongings on sidewalks and in parks.
Obama:
Low-income Kids Do Worse in School at Month's End Partly Because They're 'Getting Hungry,' Food
Stamps 'Running Out'. Kids in low-income communities statistically do poorer in terms
of school performance near the end of each month, in part, because "they start getting hungry" as
their food stamps "start running out," said President Barack Obama at a Democratic National
Committee fundraiser in Santa Monica, Calif., on Thursday [6/18/2015]. "Too many of our kids
still go hungry in this country," said Obama. "I was looking at some statistics, because we're
looking at policies around hunger and the SNAP program, and the performance of children in lower-income
communities in school dips at the end of the month in a statistically significant way," he said, "in
part because they start getting hungry as their food stamps for their family start running out which
then affects how they perform in school."
The Editor says...
Yes, if you depend on the government for every bite of food, then you may get really hungry before your next government
check comes in the mail. (Do they still send checks through the mail, or is it done by direct deposit? I'm
happy to say I don't know.) To keep from going hungry, you're supposed to get a job.
Los
Angeles ranked #1 place to live by homeless people. If it's Tuesday, you should hate the police; if it's Wednesday,
you should hate white people; if it's Thursday, you should hate men; and if it's Friday, it's time for some good old-fashioned
class envy. And so, appropriately enough, the New York Times had an article talking about the enormous swelling
population of the homeless in Los Angeles and its predictable causes. And so what is responsible for this increase in
homelessness? The Democratic city council? The Democratic mayor? Decades of Democratic Party rule in Los Angeles?
The Democratic governor? The Democratic president? No, it's people who work for a living. The Times is
claiming that gentrification, the reclamation of old, dirty, dangerous neighborhoods, is pushing people into homelessness.
Ben
Franklin Skewers Obama's Jobs Proposal. [Scroll down] Benjamin Franklin gives us his unabashed
opinion on the matter: ["]I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means.
I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving
them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public
provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And,
on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.["] Barack
Obama has formed his entire platform of social justice on the very opposite principle.
Po-Po
and the Missing Papas. Police as father substitutes have been in the lives of ghetto
boys from the first cha-ching on mamma's welfare card. And ghetto is the correct term. "Inner
city" is a prog-speak euphemism. People of all races and backgrounds live in inner cities, especially
the very rich. But every major American city has a section where the economy is controlled by two kinds
of interrelated dependency — government and drug — and that is the black ghetto.
The left-wing leaders whose power and wealth derive from that self-reinforcing dual dependency manipulate
the people to blame the in loco patres — the police — rather than question why all
the billions poured into the hood don't help.
Liberals'
petri dish laid bare in Baltimore. All the mayhem unfolding in Baltimore is nothing
short of an unspeakable American tragedy. Laid bare are the failures of cradle-to-grave social
policies held so dear by politicians in both parties, but embraced and celebrated most lustily by
Democrats. These self-proclaimed Robin Hoods and do-gooders have issued open and unashamed
invitations to the most vulnerable in society to become completely dependent upon government for
everything from food to cellphones to home heating oil. Left in the wake is the utter
annihilation of families and the destruction of cohesive neighborhoods. Complete dependency
comes at such a high and bitter cost. All in return for what really amounts to a sad
pittance of welfare payments. It is a twisted mockery of the American dream.
Blacks,
Hispanics reject Obama climate change agenda over concerns about poor. The very same
voters who helped put Barack Obama in the White House increasingly are turning against the
president's climate change agenda, with influential black and Hispanic leaders warning that stiff
regulations to limit carbon emissions will have a devastating effect on the poor and will further
stifle economic opportunity for minorities. Some of Mr. Obama's most ardent supporters say they
simply cannot go along with the administration's increasingly ambitious program to combat global
warming. They argue that, contrary to the Environmental Protection Agency's claims, the carbon
regulations will drive up utility bills for poor households and will stunt economic growth in
low-income areas.
Baltimore
riots: Who will protect rights, lives and property of city's residents? For
generations the residents of inner-city Baltimore have grown dependent on the government. The
government of that once great city and of the State of Maryland have kept large numbers of folks in
Baltimore in near poverty by offering dependence in return for votes — not personal or
economic freedom, not even safety; just dependence. That lamentable state of affairs has been
looking for a tipping point; and in the unexplained death of Freddie Gray it found one.
Why
Are So Many Employers Unable to Fill Jobs? [Reason #1] Government discourages work.
Welfare consists of dozens of different and overlapping federal and state income support programs. A
recent Census Bureau study found more than 100 million Americans collecting a government check or
benefit each month. The spike in families on food stamps, SSI, disability, public housing, and
early Social Security remains very high even five years into this recovery. This should come as no
surprise given the vast majority of the federal government's roughly 80 means-tested welfare programs
don't include any type of work requirement.
Let's
End Means-Tested Benefits. The Democratic establishment gets votes from the poor by
locking them into poverty and government dependency. But to win elections, they must also appeal
to the middle class.
The Homelessness Problem Is Still
With Us — and Growing. The [Los Angeles] Times described The Jungle as a
"68-acre shantytown," i.e., 3 million square feet. [...] Even though the camp has now been
dismantled, one quite inconvenient fact, at least for the left, remains. "The Jungle" didn't
spring up until roughly the beginning of 2013. In other words, the "makeshift community" and its
"somewhat unprecedented growth" all occurred while Democrat Chuck Reed was the city's mayor,
Democrat Jerry Brown was California's governor, and Democrat Obama was the nation's president.
If "the Jungle" had appeared while Republicans were in charge of any of these three governmental
bodies, the nation's press would have treated it as a national scandal since at least the middle
of last year.
4 charts
that expose the invisible side of homelessness. New York City and Massachusetts are
legally obligated to provide shelter to all homeless residents year-round, while Washington, DC must
do so when temperatures fall below freezing. In all three places, family homelessness increased by
roughly 40% since 2011 in the midst a national decrease of 8%. Major cities such as Philadelphia,
Atlanta, Houston, Seattle and San Francisco saw no change or even a decrease in family homelessness.
Trust
in Government is Pathological. [Scroll down] The Barnacles are the folks that
have fixed themselves on the government teat. Whether they are lifer bureaucrats counting the days
till they can retire on that government pension or single mothers on welfare or crony capitalists
sucking up green subsidies, they have to believe in government. Otherwise they'd have to get a life.
Then there's the liberal professor at a government university, or the diversity dean, or the trainers teaching
men not to rape. Of course they all believe in government. They are Barnacles; they have to fix
themselves to a host. [...] Every day in every way the liberal shills out on the midway invite Americans to
become Barnacles and attach themselves to the free-stuff substrate.
The system discourages work, whether by design or by uncorrected flaws.
The
Land of Entitlements. [Scroll down] He explained that essentially, his clientele
comprises Spanish-speaking business owners, almost all of whom employ essentially 100% Spanish
speaking workers. They own firms such as restaurants, gardening services, custodial services, small
grocery stores, painting companies, trucking companies, and so on. But, he said, most of their
employees who work only 20 to 30 hours a week, with only a very few who work the full traditional
"full time" 40 hours a week. As a result, my CPA client said, nearly all of his clients, the
business owners, don't feel an obligation to provide benefits to these "part-time" employees. When
I asked why they had mostly part-timers instead of full-time workers, he explained that the employees
don't want to earn too much money, or else they'll lose their government benefits.
Bring Back The Welfare
Stigma. There is strong evidence that welfare use is transmitted from parents to children;
that is to say, a parent's using welfare significantly increases the likelihood that the child will use it,
as well. This makes Richmond's "free lunch" program all the more troubling, of course, for it essentially
bypasses all parent involvement, at least in the children's eyes, and grants a government handout directly
to the child himself. So the welfare state has found itself wanting, and has determined that the most
efficient transmission of its benefits, and thus its own continued existence, is directly into schoolchildren's
mouths. That's efficiency.
Poor Regulations.
According to the House Budget Committee majority staff, at least 92 federal programs purport to help
lower-income Americans. These include dozens of education and job-training programs, 17 food-aid
programs, and more than 20 housing programs. In fiscal year 2012, the federal government spent
$799 billion on these programs. Ryan is hardly alone in charging that some of these programs
hurt the poor. He cites Creighton University economics professor Diana Thomas, who says that Department
of Transportation regulations requiring rear-view cameras will impact low-income car buyers, who prefer
to spend their money elsewhere.
Diaper
duty for Calif. taxpayers? Bill would create new welfare program. California is
weighing a first-of-its-kind welfare program that would subsidize diapers for needy families, though
some lawmakers say the plan's a stinker. Assembly Bill 1516, written by Assemblywoman Lorena
Gonzalez, a Democrat from San Diego, would create the taxpayer-backed program within the state's
existing welfare network, called CalWORKs (California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to
Kids). Families that qualify for CalWORKS could be eligible for $80 a month to buy diapers
for children under the age of 2.
The Editor says...
When the news media refer to "families," they are talking, by and large, about single mothers. As long as
politicians buy diapers and food for those who don't make sound decisions about their lives based on long-term thinking,
the poor will always be around, waiting for the next handout and lobbying for even more programs of this sort.
The
Progressive War on Hard Work Continues. There is a movement to bump the minimum wage
for tipped servers (often lower than the official minimum wage, because they are primarily
compensated by gratuities), which has emboldened people who seem to disdain the performance-based
nature of the service industry. [...] Because who in their right mind would embrace the idea of
earning more for doing a better job?
Downtown
bridge that would let tenants bypass homeless approved. The Los Angeles City Council
voted Friday to let a downtown developer install a pedestrian bridge over Temple Street, which had
been sought as a way to protect tenants from homeless people who live nearby.
The Editor says...
A better solution, of course, would be to incarcerate all the homeless people so that normal, sane,
law-abiding citizens can safely walk on the public streets.
1000
Days Left and Counting: Here's a Quick Snapshot of What Obama's Done So Far. What jumps out is the
unemployment rate, food stamps, and debt. But Fact Check fails to account for:
• The
labor participation rate of 63.2% being a low last seen in the 1970s;
• Nearly 50 million
living below the poverty line;
• Income inequality being at its worst level since 1947.
Why Are The Poor,
Poor? Americans at every income level face a lifetime marginal net tax rate greater than 50 percent.
That is, for every dollar they earn, they will lose more than 50 cents in higher taxes and reduced transfer benefits. Furthermore, the highest marginal net tax rates are not imposed on the highest-income families. They are imposed on
those with the lowest earnings.
SF
Supervisor Breed: fix public housing for homeless. Supervisor London Breed announced legislation
Tuesday [4/15/2014] that would earmark $2.6 million to rehabilitate 172 public housing units that are too
run down for people to live in — housing she wants used for homeless families. Breed is
asking the city to spend the money immediately and outside the normal budget process, possibly to circumvent
federal housing law, which requires hopeful public housing residents to be called off a wait list that has been
full, and closed, for four years. [... "] We have to ask for forgiveness instead of permission," she said.
"Let the federal government challenge us for being humane citizens. I'm OK with that kind of
lawbreaking — to prioritize people who live on the streets. That's a chance the
city needs to take."
[Emphasis added.]
Obamacare is a voter registration machine:
Obamacare as
Election Turnout Machine. A settlement between California and left-wing groups begins to reveal the
political architecture of Obamacare. [...] Here's the simple version: Obamacare requires millions of people
to interact with the government who never would have done so before. At the point of interaction, NVRA
requires them to be pushed to register to vote. Presto. Millions of people are now touched by a
political touch when they just wanted to see a doctor.
State to send voter
registration cards to Obamacare applicants. Heading off a lawsuit over compliance with a federal
voting rights law, California officials have agreed to help millions of state residents register to vote.
Under a deal announced Monday by several voting-rights groups, the state will send voter registration cards to
nearly 3.8 million Californians who have applied for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
The move will ensure that many residents can complete or update their registration in time for the June 3 primary
election, representatives of the groups said, and bring the state into compliance with the National Voter Registration
Act of 1993. The law requires that certain state offices provide clients with registration opportunities.
Obama
Policy Keeping Homeless People on the Street. On May 20, 2009, President Obama reauthorized
the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act of 2009. It redefined
homelessness and promoted all sorts of alleged benefits. The real result is something quite different. [...]
President Obama and the Democrats leading this country have decided that every homeless person in America is a
cookie-cutter destitute Ken or Barbie who may enter one door only to be helped. This is "central processing,"
where a bureaucrat assigns the person to a room somewhere, anywhere. The Obama solution is to give every homeless
person a room, as if mental illness and subsequent drug and alcohol problems have nothing to do with homelessness.
America in Decline.
[Scroll down] Increasingly, America is becoming a nation of dysfunctional families. 41% of babies are
born out of wedlock. Under America's first black president, American blacks are increasingly unemployed,
and 72% of black kids are born out of wedlock, a terrible indictment of American society. The corrosive
results of government hand-outs are now rampant in America. A nanny-state produces a population of dependency,
not independence or an entrepreneurial spirit.
Obama
and The Democrats Plot To Control America. The entitlement crisis has been a crisis that has not
been allowed to go to waste. Under Obama's feeble economy and sputtering "recovery" (the weakest in modern
history), spending on welfare, food stamps, and disability payments have soared. Hooking people onto the
government IV line is an excellent way to increase dependency and the number of future dependable Democrats.
It is also an excellent way to bankrupt America. [...] [T]hey can then consider their mission accomplished: the
permanent weakening of America. Obama and Congressional Democrats have handcuffed all future presidents and
endangered Americans yet to be born.
Obama's Orwellian
View Of Freedom. President Obama wants Democrats to reclaim the word "freedom" as their own. But what he describes as freedom
is little more than deeper dependence on government. Not exactly what the Founders had in mind.
'Gaming the system'?
States use trick to undo food stamp cuts. States are using what critics call a "perverse" legislative maneuver to partly
undo congressional cuts to food stamps, despite efforts by some U.S. lawmakers to stop it. The Washington Post reported Monday [3/10/2014]
that three states so far are finding a way to avoid or minimize the cuts. The bill passed by Congress last month was supposed to
save $8.6 billion over the next decade in food stamps. But New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania have figured out how to
trigger additional spending anyway. The trick, as many states have discovered, is for them to devote a relatively modest amount
of funding to home-heating assistance. Under the law, states that give a certain amount to families could then qualify those
families for additional food stamp money.
Cheat and Eat Food Stamps.
One of the farm bill's ballyhooed reforms was closing the "heat and eat" loophole, which allows states to leverage federal funds from
the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (Liheap) to raise food-stamp eligibility and payments. Fifteen states as well as
Washington, D.C. participate in "heat and eat," and more may join once they realize how their liberal neighbors are milking Uncle Sam.
Under this classic liberal trick, Liheap beneficiaries automatically qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program's "standard
utility allowance," which increases their food-stamp benefits. They receive this deduction regardless of how much they spend on
energy. Many renters don't pay a dime.
Job Destroyer. Does the president have a clue
about what creates jobs and what kills jobs? Based on the evidence from his five years as president, the answer is no, he
doesn't. [...] Obama persists in advocating an extension of unemployment benefits for 1.8 million jobless. Perhaps the
president doesn't understand that subsidizing joblessness is a sure way to keep people out of work.
Sperling:
Higher Minimum Wage Will Allow Some Americans to 'Work Less'. Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016 will help "people
who just want to work hard," but it also will help those who want to "work less," White House economic adviser Gene Sperling told MSNBC's
"Morning Joe" on Wednesday [2/19/2014]. He argued that Americans support raising the minimum wage because it will lift "struggling"
families out of poverty: [...] Sperling called an increase to $10.10 a "moderate increase," and he said it means people "will rely less
on the government."
The Editor says...
Obviously, if you can't make ends meet at the current minimum wage, you're already dependent upon the government, so a minimum wage increase
won't make you less dependent.
Obama's Two Americas: The
Economy and How Democrats Win Elections. President Obama is dividing America into two nations — one rich, the other increasingly poor,
and both more likely to elect Democrats. Americans growing richer support his policies, and those growing poorer are increasingly dependent on Democratic
politicians for government handouts.
Obama's Loafer Nation. Obama telegraphed his
goal in 2008, making a Kinsley gaffe (a politician accidentally telling the truth) when he went off the teleprompter and told Joe the Plumber
that his goal was to "spread the wealth." How have Obama and his fellow Democrats achieved that goal? Count the ways:
Endless extensions of unemployment insurance to anesthetize jobless Americans from the pain of reckless Democratic anti-growth policies;
Record high food stamp usage; A record number on disability were getting the highest-ever monthly benefits; Labor Force participation rates
have declined; people not in the labor force are at a record 91.8 million; Democrats are encouraging people to get on the government
dole at an early age. High-school students are constantly exhorted to go to college.
Federal
Government Has Declared War On Work. While 50 years ago the federal government declared war on poverty, I would submit that
in recent years it has led an undeclared but real new war: a War on Work. [...] While a vast number of government policies cause a
decline in work, let me mention just six:
• Extended unemployment benefits.
• Expansion of food stamps.
• Higher taxes on workers, especially the most productive ones.
• Increases in Social Security disability payments.
• Increases in Pell Grants and other forms of federal higher education aid.
• Increases in minimum wage laws at local, state and federal levels.
Exploiting the miserable. In an
email Wednesday [1/15/2014] for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Mr. Reid urged supporters to sign a petition to "demand that
Republicans extend unemployment insurance with no strings attached." The "strings" are the eminently sensible requirements that the
$6.5 billion cost of a three-month extension be paid for with cuts elsewhere in a federal budget the size of the Goodyear blimp.
To suggest, as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi did in September, that "the cupboard is bare" and there are "no more cuts to make," is
beyond preposterous.
Study:
Extending Unemployment Benefits Increased Unemployment by More than 3 Percentage Points. The study's finding: "Most of the
persistent increase in unemployment during the Great Recession can be accounted for by the unprecedented extensions of unemployment benefit
eligibility." In the aftermath of the financial crisis, the federal government has dramatically expanded the length of the unemployment
insurance program from the typical 26 weeks, the period states more or less have the funds to offer, to as long as 99 weeks.
Levin:
Boehner, Cantor, Ryan Expanding Welfare State by Pushing Amnesty. Radio's Mark Levin on Friday evening [1/10/2014] excoriated
House GOP leadership, particularly House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, for their
immigration policies that will end up aiding an increased welfare state.
GOP
Is Right To Seek Cuts Before Extending Jobless Benefits. Once again, Democrats are styling themselves as the party of
compassion by spending money they don't have and forcing taxes on future generations of workers to pay for it. It's phony, but
they've gotten so good at this class-warfare schtick that hey, they just might get away with it again. And not wanting to be
seen as Scrooges, the GOP will no doubt eventually go along. But Republicans would do the country and themselves a favor by
insisting that Democrats at the very least agree to cuts elsewhere in the budget equal to the $6.4 billion they'll spend extending
jobless benefits.
Obama [is] America's Clear and Present Danger. Pure and simple,
liberal progressives are advocating for wealth redistribution and trickle up poverty. They believe instead of having tax, regulatory,
and monetary policies that enable a thriving free market system, we should expand the welfare nanny-state. It's purely political, and
not as President Obama tries to persuade, moral. The goal is to create such a state of depravity and hopelessness for a broad swath of
Americans who are forced into the desperate state of grateful dependency upon Obama and his ilk. It's the textbook Alinsky tactic of
demonizing the opposition as heartless, uncaring, mean and evil.
White House pressures Congress on
long-term jobless benefits. The White House is ratcheting up the pressure on Congress to restore emergency long-term unemployment
benefits when they return to Washington next week. President Obama will be joined by people who have lost those benefits, which expired
at the end of last year, when he delivers remarks on the issue at the White House on Tuesday [1/7/2014].
Obama
adviser Gene Sperling pushes for unemployment benefits extension without offsets. Top White House economic adviser Gene Sperling took to the
Sunday morning talk shows to push for Congress to extend emergency unemployment benefits ahead of a key Senate vote Monday [1/6/2014].
Sperling, the director of President Obama's National Economic Council, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Monday "is the day that 1.3 million
Americans go to their mailbox and find that the check that they'd been relying on to put food on their table, put gas in their cars to look for a
new job, will not be there."
The Editor says...
If the goldbricks were using their unemployment checks to hunt for a new job, it wouldn't take 99 weeks to do so. On the
other hand, if those unemployment checks are buying cigarettes, beer, concert tickets, false eyelashes, and scratch-off lottery tickets, the job hunt probably isn't a priority.
How to Keep Workers Unemployed.
Maybe it's time to consider whether the big expansion of unemployment insurance has increased joblessness. In 2009 the Obama Administration
and Congress extended jobless benefits for up to 99 weeks. The point was to help people through the recession, but now the jobless
rate is 7%, down from 10%, and the White House still wants another extension.
Obama
To Hold Photo-Op With Americans Who Lost Unemployment Benefits. As part of an effort to pressure Republicans into extending
federal aid for three more months, Obama will hold a photo-op at the White House with Ameicans who lost their unemployment benefits at the
start of the year.
The Editor says...
We're apparently supposed to feel sorry for goldbricks whose 99 weeks of unemployment checks have come to and end. The President wants to
extend unemployment benefits even further — preferably until after the next election day. Obviously, if unemployment checks
lasted a lifetime, no Democrat would ever work again. Here's my simplistic-yet-brilliant solution: Send out 99 weeks of
unemployment checks, but have the payments decrease by one percent every week. The gradual increase in pressure will make a lot of
people turn off the TV and hunt for a job — at least the few who understand what percentages are.
Obamacare could increase food stamp rolls.
Republicans have another reason to hate Obamacare: It could grow the number of people on food stamps. The Obama administration has ordered a
study to determine whether the Affordable Care Act, by increasing the number of people eligible for Medicaid, will also increase the number of people
enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program based on how states enroll people.
Food Stamp Independency. Today [11/1/2013], the first-ever
program-wide reduction in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ("SNAP"), also known as food stamps, will take place. [...] This increase in
dependency is a specific goal of the Obama administration, with the USDA giving bonuses to states for "efficiency" in adding more people to the food
stamp welfare rolls. In 2011, Oregon bragged of a $5 million "performance bonus" for increasing SNAP recipients by 60 percent over three
years. Contrary to willfully ignorant reporting describing today's reductions as "a move by congress," these automatic "cuts" represent the
end of a temporary boost of 13.6 percent in SNAP benefits enacted through President Obama's 2009 stimulus, which failed to stimulate anything other
than the growth of government and dependency — again, precisely the goal of this administration.
Call 911! EBT benefits get cut.
I would hate to be a 911 operator around 1 or 2 this afternoon when the welfare recipients start rolling out of bed. Stand by for a deluge of calls
reporting thefts — from their EBT cards. Their monthly dole just got cut this morning. How can President Obama have let this happen
to his most loyal voters?
When the Have Nots Become the Haves. New research from the Republicans
on the Senate Budget Committee shows that over the last five years, the U.S. has spent about $3.7 trillion on welfare. "We have just concluded
the 5th fiscal year since President Obama took office. During those five years, the federal government has spent a total $3.7 trillion on
approximately 80 different means-tested poverty and welfare programs. [...] The goal has always been to get enough people receiving benefits to
out-vote the ones paying for the benefits.
Is Healthcare.gov
Designed To Register Dem Voters? The crash-prone government health-care site asks applicants if they want to register to vote as they try to
sign up for ObamaCare. By sheer coincidence, a plurality of the uninsured are likely Democratic voters.
Obamacare Websites Encourage Voter Registration
After Application Completion. The Obamacare exchange website does more than merely register you for an insurance program. According
to a report from the MacIver Institute, once you complete the process, you are then immediately asked to register to vote — a propagandistic
strategy designed to make government beneficiaries into lifetime Democratic voters.
Obamacaid. Democrats do have one lament about [Obamacare's]
implementation: Some states are opting out of the Medicaid expansion. Medicaid, the joint state-federal safety net intended for the poor, already covers more
than one of five Americans and pays for two of five U.S. births. And that's before ObamaCare dumps up to 20 million new dependents onto its rolls.
Obamacare's next round.
In his book "Crisis and Leviathan," [Robert] Higgs described how the state takes on massive new powers during a crisis, usually wars. When the crisis
subsides, the state relinquishes some of those powers, but it never gives them all back. This is how the state grows over time. But the concept
has broadened in recent years. On both the right and the left, there's agreement that once you give people a new entitlement, they won't want to
let go of it.
Portland
wants to put a homeless camp in a parking lot under a bridge. One of Portland's trendiest areas might soon be home to a tent city. If
this were another town, the owners and developers of high-end homes and condominiums would scream to high heaven about diminished property values.
But this is Portland, where the citizens try their best to be tolerant of everything except intolerance — and gluten.
The Editor says...
Very obviously, if the City of Portland makes life more comfortable for vagrants and bums, their numbers will increase steadily.
How ObamaCare Wrecks the Work Ethic.
A new wave of redistribution will arrive in America on Jan. 1, primarily thanks to the Affordable Care Act. The president's health-insurance
plan forces those who hire, work and produce to pay full price for health care, while creating generous discounts for practically everyone else.
This second redistributionist wave of the Obama era will follow a first wave of tax hikes, additional unemployment benefits, food-stamp expansions,
waived work requirements for welfare benefits, etc.
Weakness Does Not Make A Political
Party. [Scroll down] The President wanted to change America. He has succeeded. Our national family income is down to 1989 levels.
This breeds more dependency and future Democrats.
GOP Food Stamp Bill Includes $125 Million to
Fight Food Deserts. The House Republican bill to reduce food stamp spending also creates a $125 million program to combat food
deserts and orders the agriculture secretary to "review the public health benefits of white potatoes." H.R. 3102, which narrowly passed
217-210 on Thursday [9/19/2013], was the subject of scorn from Democrats due to $3.9 billion in cuts per year over the next ten years to the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps. The cuts to a program that now spends $88.6 billion
annually.
Florida official tells Christian charity to choose between Jesus
and cheese. A Florida ministry that feeds the poor said a state agriculture department official told them they would not be allowed to receive USDA food unless
they removed portraits of Christ, the Ten Commandments, a banner that read "Jesus is Lord" and stopping giving Bibles to the needy. "They told us they could no longer
allow us to have any religious information where the USDA food is going to be," said Kay Daly, executive director of the Christian Service Center.
Should
Austin spend $175K on statue honoring homeless ... or on the homeless? This is a tougher question that it seems on the surface.
KEYE TV reports that the Austin city council is considering whether to replace a barely-visible tribute to the homeless who have died on the
street with a more prominent statue for the same purpose, at a cost of $175,000. One advocate for the homeless and the statue calls the cash
"chump change" while defending the project.
The Editor says...
The best way to attract homeless people to your city is to make them feel welcome and honorable. Homeless people who have died in the street
were there, I believe, because of bad choices they had made months or years earlier. Beggars and sponges are not honorable people and do not
need to be commemorated.
The government wants a monopoly on benvolence.
Police Stop Effort to Feed
the Homeless. In Raleigh, North Carolina the non-profit religious group, Love Wins Ministries, makes an effort to feed and help the
homeless every Saturday and Sunday. But this weekend was different. The group was attempting to hand out coffee and sausage biscuits
when the police officers arrived.
The Rolling Student Loan Bailout.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau performed a genuine public service this week by alerting taxpayers to the tidal wave of student loan
defaults coming their way. Too bad the intention was also to alert student borrowers to ways they can avoid repaying those loans.
A new analysis by the bureau shows federal-backed student loan debt surpassing $1 trillion, which is nearly double what it was at the
start of the Obama Presidency.
Busybody Politics. San Francisco and
New York are both plagued with large "homeless" populations today, largely as a result of previous housing "reforms" that made housing more expensive
and severely limited how much housing, and of what kind, could be built. The solution? Spend more of the taxpayers' money making
homelessness a viable lifestyle for more people.
Free air fare!
Hawaii lawmakers
want to buy homeless one-way tickets off island. Lawmakers in the Aloha State want to wave goodbye to their growing homeless
population — by buying them a one-way ticket off the island. Hawaii's controversial three-year "Return to Home" pilot program
launches later this year and is being billed as a way to help the state's 17,000 homeless residents, while reducing the financial burden the
state has in caring for them. Under the plan, the state will pay for a one-way plane ticket for any homeless resident who can find
someone on the mainland to take them in.
Hawaii
sets aside $100,000 to offer its 17,000 homeless people one-way airfare back to their home states. Hawaii is hoping to take the burden off
its welfare system by saying aloha to its 17,000 homeless residents. The state will offer one-way tickets home to any eligible homeless person to
anywhere in the continental United States. Hawaii has allotted $100,000 for a three year trial run of the so-called 'return-to-home' program, which
could also even offer participants beds on cruise ships bound for their homes.
The Editor says...
If you're a tourist returning from Hawaii, you'd better hope the State of Hawaii hasn't packed your plane with undesirable bums.
Poverty: Americans Blame Welfare.
Americans say government welfare is the biggest reason for poverty, according to a new Wall Street Journal and NBC News poll.
"Given a list of eight factors and asked to choose the one most responsible for the continuing problem of poverty, 24 percent
of respondents in the poll chose 'too much government welfare that prevents initiative,'" reports NBC. Not surprisingly, only
4 percent of those in the survey stated lack of government funding as the top reason for persisting poverty.
Obama's 'Iron Curtain' descends on America.
Far more wily than Uncle Sam or Uncle Sugar, 'Uncle Satan' lures scores of U.S. citizens motivated by entitlement mentality with
food stamps, free cell phones and unquestioned access to social security, into a trap from which they will never escape.
Comfortable with the guarantee the government will look after them from cradle to grave, few see the walls going up around them.
25 Reasons To Dislike
Liberals. [#10] Liberals view hooking people on welfare and food stamps as a core part of their election strategy,
which is terrible for the country, shows they have no character and requires more than a little hatred for poor people.
Jihad Bums. Americans have an improper
understanding of what welfare actually is. Many among us believe it to be charity and have the naiveté to believe
that it will be accepted by poor, beleaguered beneficiaries as such. But welfare bestows entitlement, not charity —
and its result is not gratitude, but resentment. Democrats are all too willing to nurture those feelings of resentment, and
the bulk of their constituents may be content with continued promises to grant them a pittance more in the next election cycle.
But that is not good enough for Islamic fundamentalists.
Creating Dependency, One Mouthful
at a Time. In a nutshell, receiving a temporary handout that depends on doing something worthwhile is wholly
unlike receiving the identical assistance sans any obligation and for however long as the recipient remains legally eligible.
Index of
Dependence on Government Jumps for the Fourth Year in a Row. The Index tracks government spending on the federal
programs that breed government dependency. The Index rises 3.28 percent in next year's report, for which 2011 is the latest
year the underlying data are available. It is adjusted for inflation, so it rises or falls because of spending in real
dollars.
Why Welfare is Working.
In reality, one of the main reasons the Republican's [sic] keep loosing [sic] is that we refuse to buy votes with the use of food stamps and
welfare checks. For this reason alone, welfare is working perfectly for those on the left. The Democrats have done a great job of
legitimizing these buyoffs for decades and with the use of various tools of propaganda, the primary issue with those on government assistance on
Election Day is to protect their monthly entitlement.
Progressive
Democrat Control Came Via Welfare State Voters. This tragedy can be exposed via one rhetorical question: What
would happen to the Democrats if all the poor in this country suddenly became rich? They'd never win another election, would
they? So the Democrats have a vested need to keep the poor down. Our permanent welfare class is no accident. Government
incentives for people to stay poor may be well-calculated. But with a repressed minority manipulated into believing that Democrats
are on its side, now to be joined via immigration by a large number of Hispanics that the Dems see as captive voters, the new U.S.
demographics make the liberal Democrats' scheme to finesse a permanent one-party government a near certainty.
'Dignity
Mortgages': Welfare By Another Name. Housing activists' new bright idea is approving home loans for people who
have rebuilt their finances since losing their job and their homes during the crisis, but who still have bad credit. Though
required to make a down payment, inner-city housing groups could front them the money.
The Risk of Obama's Universal Daycare.
Heavy-handed state intrusion always beings innocuously, a "good idea" to cure a seeming intractable problem but as one intervention after the next
falls short, state power expands and personal freedom slips away. Obama's initiative is only emerging but its key elements are clear. A
state-federal partnership will guarantee a pre-kindergarten education to every family whose income falls below 200% of the poverty line ($38,000 for
a single parent with two children). Head Start will also be massively expanded (it currently consumes $7.6 billion).
Against the Ghetto Plantation. If Frederick Douglass walked
today's ghettos, he would witness a new-age style of slavery, plantations without the lash and chains. He would soon be outraged that government overseers are
perpetuating generations of dependency through policies designed to capture the votes of the ignorant.
Welfare Increases
Poverty Instead Of Ending It. Americans have now elected twice a man who said he wanted to spread the wealth around.
So how ugly is it going to get? The Senate Budget Committee says welfare spending will nearly double in 10 years.
We're now one step closer to
America's coming civil war. Far from adding to people's standard of living, government is the number one cause of poverty in
this country. It forces those who depend on its largesse to live hand to mouth, with no time or money to plan for the future. They
become unable to fend for themselves — and increasingly resentful of those who can. When the economy tanks and the
government checks have to shrink, their only alternative is to take to the streets. That's what happening in Argentina, and in
Greece; [...]
Oh, good! Now they have the right to urinate in the street.
California lawmaker proposes 'homeless
bill of rights'. California law protects its residents from discrimination based on sex, race, religion and sexual orientation.
Now a state lawmaker is pushing to add another category to the list: homelessness. New legislation titled the "Homeless Bill of
Rights" by Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco is meant to keep communities from rousting people who have nowhere to turn.
The Editor says...
Somehow the writer failed to include words like vagrant and vagabond, and only the
commenters used words like drifter and bum and panhandling. Homeless people generally are
homeless for a reason — usually a lifetime of bad decisions. This makes them poor candidates for long-term
employment, which is apparently the motivation for the proposed legislation discussed in the article above. Please
keep in mind that many of the chronically homeless who need protection are really in need of incarceration for their own
good. Street-corner beggars pay no taxes, so if they bring in $20 an hour, they're probably better off than you.
Even the ones who claim to be hungry will throw away food if someone gives it to them. Give a couple of bananas to
a "hungry" roadside beggar and see what he or she does with them.
Obama's
Idea Of 'Balance' Is Higher Taxes To Fund A Growing Welfare State. To paraphrase Churchill on the British Empire, Barack
Obama did not become president of the United States to preside over the liquidation of the welfare state. On the contrary, he is
dedicated to its expansion. He's already created the largest new entitlement in half a century (ObamaCare). And he has
increased federal spending to an astronomical 24.4% of GDP (the postwar norm is about 20%), a level not seen since World War II.
But this level of spending requires a significantly higher level of taxation.
Does the Left really
want to end poverty? The statistical evidence of the past twenty years has become overwhelming: that getting a job is by
far the best route out of poverty, that benefit dependency tends to turn temporary hardship into permanent poverty, and that free
markets can deliver mass prosperity more effectively than any other form of economic system. It is time for the debate to
move on. The old fashioned socialist dogma — that only the state can "lift people out of poverty" —
is not just wrong. It is pernicious.
How much wealth do the poor in America have?
[Scroll down] In America, poverty is self-inflicted. But that doesn't mean that the Democrats don't help the poor to stay poor. Democrats wants [sic]
to raise minimum wage, which promotes higher unemployment among younger workers — and more dependence on government programs. They want to subsidize
single motherhood and enact no-fault divorce laws, to destroy marriage. And they want to push gay history and green propaganda in the public schools, to diminish
the economic value of a high school education. They don't want the poor to lift themselves out of poverty so that they are independent of government.
Report: CFPB stifles
150,000 jobs after controversial 'recess' appointment. President Obama's Consumer Financial Protection Board, led by a 'recess appointee'
installed when the Senate was actually in session, has blocked 150,000 jobs and made it difficult for lower-income Americans to access credit, according
to a new House report.
Per Household Welfare Spending Exceeds Median Income. The tipping point is
where so many people are gorging at the government teat that they will vote for whomever is most likely to keep the free money flowing,
no matter how conspicuously awful that person might be as a leader.
Political
Elites Keep Power By Blocking Change. A couple of economists have determined that rulers around the world keep their subjects in
poverty so they can maintain power. What does this impart to us about where our country is headed today?
Fighting the Good Conservative Fight.
Susan Carroll of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University explains the obvious. "The Democrats are much more supportive
of the social safety net, the programs that help people who need financial assistance, whether it be unemployment insurance, child nutrition programs,
Medicaid, the whole infrastructure of the social welfare state that helps people who financially are more in need." Nothing keeps people
"in need" better than the disintegration of marriage and the nuclear family. As long as this trend continues to get worse, so will
conservative electoral prospects.
The Republican Hispanic challenge.
Although Mitt Romney took flak for his statement that he lost the election because President Obama bestowed "gifts" on key parts of the electorate,
what he said is basically true. We're stuck in a deadly spiral where economic growth is retarded because the economy is larded with enormous
and ever increasing government spending and debt. Yet, more and more Americans want the lard. President Obama got re-elected by
promising to continue to serve it up.
5 Questions for Black Voters.
Democrats have been bribing people to vote for them with various social programs. Since the 1960s, the government's welfare
policies have been been decimating black families and keeping people mired in poverty and misery. Furthermore, Democrats have a
vested interest in keeping people poor and powerless so they can continue to offer them "goodies" in exchange for their votes. How
does it feel to know your vote is being bought and you're being taken for granted?
3 Windows into Obama's Dangerous Second Term. What
should have come out in late October didn't arrive until November 9, yet another Friday afternoon, three convenient days after the election.
It's now clear that Team Obama deliberately sat on it, as its contents would certainly have become a final-days election issue had they been known.
August enrollment exploded by over 400,000 to a record-shattering 47.1 million. Revised data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us that
the economy added 192,000 jobs during that same month. Though that level of monthly job growth, symptomatic of the worst economic recovery since
World War II, is still unacceptable, the food stamp rolls should be declining, and they're not. That's because the program has morphed from
being about temporarily helping the truly needy into a dependency-engendering, vote-buying enterprise.
House Democrats push for
extension of jobless benefits. House Democrats are beginning their push for an extension of expanded federal unemployment benefits
before more than 2.1 million workers lose them at year's end.
Food Stamps — The
Black Hole You Enter and Never Exit. Why in the world is this welfare program administered through the Agriculture Department? We
have been arguing about agriculture subsidies since the beginning of time, yet a program that really has nothing to do with farming or ranching now
swallows up most of the budget. Just the idea that the Department of Agriculture (USDA) is running a $75 billion welfare program gives you
a perspective of how screwed up this situation has become.
Obama's Class Warfare Rhetoric Is Preparation for Tyranny. Mitt Romney
was entirely correct when he alluded to the efforts by Obama and the Democrats to create a faction of people dependent upon the government, and therefore
upon themselves, who therefore would form a reliable voting bloc. Indeed, this has been the Left's modus operandi since FDR's time —
lure Americans into the addiction of government handouts, continually make the income tax code more and more "progressive" so that greater and greater
numbers of us in effect do not pay any income taxes while shifting the burden more and more to the capital-providing, jobs-producing rich. By
draining and driving out these victims of redistribution, the government then generates more "need" for hand-outs and assistance as jobs disappear and
the economy systematically slows down. Obama has been working for the last four years to accelerate these trends because he is making a concerted
effort to grasp total power.
Depending on Dependency. The
theme that most seemed to rouse the enthusiasm of delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte was that we are all
responsible for one another — and that Republicans don't want to help the poor, the sick and the helpless. [...] Belief
in the superior compassion of the political left is a worldwide phenomenon that goes back at least as far as the 18th century.
But in all that time, and in all those places, there has been little, if any, effort on the left to check this crucial assumption
against facts.
Administration: Bingo Games Can Promote Food Stamp Use.
The USDA wants to add to the record 46.7 million Americans who receive food stamps, including seniors the agency says could be convinced to sign up
for the government program through parties featuring games like Bingo and crosswords. The tips for recruiting food stamp recipients are part of the
agency's 261-page tool kit issued in August 2011, which states the "campaign" is designed to increase the number of food stamp recipients, including seniors.
"The primary goals of the campaign are to increase enrollment in SNAP and to reinforce its role as a nutrition assistance program," the tool kit states.
USDA's new tactic to promote food
stamps: Party! Forget Tupperware bashes and toga soirees — the latest rage is food stamp parties. The USDA is
encouraging the nation's food stamp program to promote to the elderly using parties and games. A series of guides currently posted on
the USDA website promotes local offices of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — or SNAP, but commonly referred to as
food stamps — to entice eligible seniors to enroll in the welfare program. The promotional campaign has cost between
$2.5 million and $3 million.
Obama
Admin. Boosts Food-Stamp Participation by Targeting Seniors. Despite already having record-breaking numbers of Americans on
food stamps, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) continues to campaign for more, as the agency has been espousing the government
welfare program through parties featuring games like Bingo and crossword puzzles. Targeting the nation's seniors, the effort was
touted in a pamphlet released on the USDA website earlier this summer, which provides tips for recruiting potential recipients to the
program.
Civil Unrest: Do Our Rulers Actually Want It To Happen?
There have been several different predictions and scenarios involving how inflation and austerity measures in the U.S. could bring about food
shortages and other shortages, food riots, looting, violent protests, flash mobs, and martial law. [...] But it seems that the U.S. government
has been pushing hard to get as many people dependent on government as possible. Food stamps spending has more than doubled since Barack
Obama became President, although the number of Americans on food stamps almost doubled from 2001 to 2009 during the presidency of George W.
Bush as well.
'Mountain Pride' versus the Welfare State.
The federal government is choking our economy while it degrades the character of a proud people. The food stamp program is purposefully
undermining "mountain pride" in Appalachian communities in order to create more wards of the welfare state. It should be a scandal that
the federal government is purposefully weakening a core principle of our value system: self-reliance. To wit, the feds are praising
local bureaucrats for "counteracting" what they call "mountain pride." These bureaucrats are convincing people who characteristically
reject food stamps to instead embrace a culture of dependence.
The Drug Is Government, The
Pusher Is President Obama. The signature theme of Barack Obama's presidency is getting millions more Americans addicted
to more government, often a little bit at a time. Pushing the big government drug is everywhere in Obama domestic policy. High
joblessness from his own policies justifies an unprecedented level of extended unemployment benefits, an approach even Paul Krugman
concedes "reduces a worker's incentive to quickly find a new job."
BBCE = broad-based categorical eligibility.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Improved Oversight of State Eligibility Expansions
Needed. Over the last 10 years, participation in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) SNAP, previously known as the Food Stamp
Program, has more than doubled, and costs have quadrupled. Since 1999, USDA has allowed states to expand SNAP eligibility by adopting BBCE policies, which
make households that receive services funded by Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, such as a toll-free number or brochure, categorically eligible for
SNAP. Under BBCE policies, states are able to increase federal SNAP limits on household income and remove limits on assets.
Big Government's Best Friends:
Nontaxpayers. The proportion of those paying no income taxes continues to hit higher highs — a trend that will ultimately
make lowering taxes and reducing government impossible.
USDA
moves to end questionable food stamp ads after criticism. The Department of Agriculture moved Friday [7/13/2012]
to "cease future production" of advertisements that encourage people to go on food stamps, FoxNews.com has learned, following
criticism over what was described as an "aggressive" campaign to grow enrollment. The department had come under fire
for a 10-part series of Spanish-language "novelas" that trumpeted the benefits of the food stamp program. The radio
ads were produced in 2008, but continued to be available for use. After those ads drew scrutiny, though, the USDA
removed them from its website.
1-800-FOOD-STAMPS:
How states expand eligibility for welfare program. Getting food-stamp benefits can now be as easy as picking up an
informational brochure or calling a toll-free number, according to a new report out this week from the Government Accountability
Office. More than 40 states have lowered eligibility requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,
resulting in a vast expansion of the welfare state under President Obama.
A Guaranteed Minimum Income In The US? We know from the records
that the welfare rolls have increased exponentially under Obama. Recently, changes were made by Presidential Executive Order to redefine
"work" allowing even more applicants for welfare to be added to the welfare rolls. Why? Could it be the Obama Administration is
deliberately attempting to "crash" the US welfare system? If so, why? I contend that is exactly what is happening. If
I an [sic] correct, then we are actually seeing the "Cloward-Piven Strategy" at work. We are observing the foundation, the groundwork, if you
will, for establishing a guaranteed annual (minimum) income for American citizens.
Fewer know independence from government.
This Independence Day we note an unfortunately accelerating trend toward government dependence. This is tragically ironic in the land of
the free, where the founders were brave enough to assert independence from the government of their day. The genesis of the problem was when
government's string pullers discovered how to offer something of value at little or no apparent cost to those receiving it. Uncommon
personal character is required to turn down such an offer on principle. We long for a revival of the principle that set the United States
apart two centuries ago — the principle of independence, rather than of dependence.
Government
under fire for 'novela' ad campaign promoting food stamp enrollment. The Department of Agriculture is coming
under fire for its "aggressive" ad campaign, including a 10-part series of Spanish-language "novelas," to convince people to
go on food stamps — at a time when one in seven are already enrolled. The food stamp rolls have swelled since
the recession, growing roughly 40 percent since 2009. As of April, more than 46 million people were in the program, which
costs $80 billion a year. Yet the USDA is engaged in an ongoing ad campaign to convince those not on food
stamps — but still technically eligible — to let down their pride and sign up.
The Dictator in the Black Iron Man Suit.
Al Sharpton and a majority of the so-called black civil rights coalition define blackness as having an urban experience, solely dependent on government
for survival, always voting Democrat, and being incapable of finding one's way to acquire a photo ID. Sharpton and company consider self
sufficient-blacks traitors to their race, trying to act white. All of my life, I have fought to free myself and fellow blacks from the left's
efforts to force blacks to live in their "black box."
The Great Destroyer. In wholesale breach
of his 2008 campaign themes, [President Obama] is zapping America of its optimism and hope, replacing those with despair and malaise.
He is using his bully pulpit to turn the American dream on its head, demonizing success and glorifying government dependency.
Trillions Have Been Wasted On Poverty Programs That
Don't Work. The federal government wants more Americans using food stamps. To what end? Washington has been fighting a war on poverty since
1964 and has gotten nowhere with it. Unless of course establishing a culture of dependency is the goal. If that's the federal government's real objective,
then it's doing a fine job.
Does Government
Want People to Be Poor? Street vending has been a path out of poverty for Americans. And
like other such paths (say, driving a taxi), this one is increasingly difficult to navigate. Why?
Because entrenched interests don't like competition. So they lobby their powerful friends to erect high
hurdles to upstarts. It's an old story. Now, growing local governments are crushing street vendors.
The city of Atlanta, for example, has turned all street vending over to a monopoly contractor. In feudalist
fashion, all existing vendors were told they must work for the monopoly or not vend at all.
Registering
the Poor to Vote is Un-American. Why are left-wing activist groups so keen on
registering the poor to vote? Because they know the poor can be counted on to vote
themselves more benefits by electing redistributionist politicians. Welfare recipients are
particularly open to demagoguery and bribery. Registering them to vote is like handing out
burglary tools to criminals. It is profoundly antisocial and un-American to empower the
nonproductive segments of the population to destroy the country — which is precisely
why Barack Obama zealously supports registering welfare recipients to vote.
Runaway Trains of Bureaucracy.
[Scroll down] For example, according to the GAO report, 18 different programs across three federal
agencies work to "ensure the needy have access to food," producing an estimated $62.5 billion in
overlap. Every one of these eighteen programs found an ample supply of needy mouths to feed, and set
about requesting an ever-larger cornucopia from Congress. None of the bureaucrats involved was going to
spend his valuable time searching the massive federal flowchart to see if any other agency might already be
working to assist prospective clients. There was no incentive for them to make their agencies
less
useful, and less worthy of a funding increase in the next budget.
DOJ
sting targets Bobby Jindal and ignores the law. Attorney General Eric Holder's Justice Department
has targeted Gov. Bobby Jindal's, R-La., administration as part of a rushed investigation into whether Louisiana
is complying with federal voting laws. Undercover investigators have flooded the state to interview welfare
recipients to determine if state welfare offices are urging them to register to vote. During a time when DOJ
travel is purportedly frozen, these numerous DOJ staffers have been deployed for days in New Orleans and around
Louisiana trolling for stories of state officials failing to urge welfare recipients to register to vote.
Ratio
Of Takers To Givers Reaches A Tipping Point. In America, nearly half of wage earners
pay not one single dime in federal income taxes. Many of them trudge down to the local polling
place or vote via absentee ballot — and vote themselves a raise.
Keeping Poor People
Poor. In Houston, a less restrictive city, regulatory costs add about $13,200 to the price of an
average home. In San Diego, a multitude of regulations add $240,000. These cost-increasing regulations
have essentially priced many low-income residents out of the market for a private home, forcing them to turn to
public housing instead.
Freeing
Entrepreneurs to Provide Essential Services for the Poor. Poor Americans face difficulties accessing
many services that most Americans take for granted, some of which are essential to their ability to work and live
in a safe environment. Such services include transportation, child care, security, housing and health care.
Federal, state and local government programs exist to meet these needs, but they are often costly and do a poor
job of meeting the needs of low-income families. However, private entrepreneurs — individuals,
for-profit businesses and entrepreneurial charities — could supplement government efforts or provide
better alternatives. Unfortunately, a host of government regulations bar or limit these potential
entrepreneurial efforts.
These people want unlimited, perpetual welfare checks.
Welfare
recipients file class-action lawsuit over benefits limit. Several welfare recipients filed a
class-action lawsuit Friday [9/28/2011] in federal court to block a stricter, four-year lifetime limit on
benefits from taking effect Saturday.
Maybe this is why socialists hate the Boy Scouts:
Depending on the Government.
We are dependent on government, in scarier ways than Obamacare. We haven't learned from the generations
before us how to garden, and many city ordinances wouldn't let us grow our own food anyway. We don't
know how to build or craft many of our necessities.
A nation of sponges:
Nonpayers
Complicate Republican Effort At Overhaul of U.S. Tax Code. More than 45 percent of U.S.
households won't owe federal income taxes for 2010. That stems from decades of tax cuts and, in the
minds of some Republican lawmakers, it's also a problem. Policies designed to ease the tax burden of
lower-income Americans and offer targeted tax incentives have pushed millions of people off the income tax
rolls. That has bolstered an argument that these households don't have enough of a stake in the
political system because they don't pay income taxes.
Bureaucrats find ways to perpetuate their jobs.
Washington Sends $1 Food Stamp Checks to 250,000.
The state of Washington sent $1 food stamp checks to 250,000 households in order to raise state caseload figures and trigger $43 million in
additional federal funds.
Food stamps have been de-stigmatized
Food stamps are now in the form of a debit card, which makes shopping more comfortable for the freeloader.
(It's called Electronic Benefits Transfer or
EBT.)
It's
a SNAP — And it Can Be Hacked A Number of Ways. The program was known for
years as food stamps. It was meant to provide assistance to people in need, making sure they
had at least enough to eat and it literally distributed books of stamps to be used at grocery
stores. About a decade or so ago — depending upon which state you lived
in — the stamps were phased out and recipients instead started to receive the equivalent
of debit cards. A family that got, say, $500 a month in stamps instead had that money put on
a card that could be used for food and, in theory, food alone. The cards were introduced for
a number of reasons, the main one it seems being that making people rummage through actual stamps
in the grocery store was rather demeaning as it was a clear signal to anyone within eyeshot that
they were poor.
She
Thinks 500 Dollars Per Month In Food Stamps Is Not Enough, She Demands 1k. You
taxpayers are just not working hard enough to be able to keep up with inflation, you all need to
work more hours to pay 1000 dollars per month for this woman's food bills. [Video clip]
The
Day All the Free Food Vanished. FBI Director Christopher Wray recently warned America
about a possible Chinese cyberattack on our electric grid, transportation centers, and energy
facilities that would almost destroy our economy. [...] Particularly consequential would be
disrupting the government's program to supply food to those with low incomes. the most important is
the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly called "food stamps." [...] SNAP
benefits reflect a family's size, income and expenses and is automatically placed in credit
card-like Electronic Benefit Cards. In 2023, some 42.1 million Americans, on average,
participated in the SNAP program at a cost of $113 billion dollars (with some exceptions,
families with a gross monthly income of $3000 or less are eligible). SNAP has generally
expanded, especially under President Biden, and covers nearly all food a family might need except
for tobacco products, alcoholic beverages, pet food, already cooked food, medicine, and
diapers. In 2020, 27% of SNAP recipients were Black.
Even
before reforms, food stamp use declined drastically under Trump. Barack Obama got the nickname "the food-stamp
president" because food stamp usage reached unparalleled heights during his administration. In his first two years in
office, 12 million people were added to the already 28 million people receiving food stamps. By the time he left
office, 44.2 million people in America were on food stamps. Under the old rules for food stamp eligibility, adults
between 18 and 49, who were able to work and had no dependents, could receive only three months of food stamp benefits over a
three year period if they did not meet a 20-hour-a-week minimum work requirement. The exception to the rule was that
states with unemployment rates as low as 3.6% were able to waive the work requirement. When Donald Trump came into
office, he promised to shrink the number of food stamp recipients by tightening eligibility rules. He wisely waited,
however, until the economy was stronger before implementing any major rules.
Socialism
starves, America feeds, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lies. The latest goings-on with America's SNAP, or food stamp,
program is that this administration reined in some of its more egregiously abused aspects by formalizing work requirements
for adults, ages 18 to 49, who do not have minor-age dependents to feed. In other words: If you're an adult, able
to work, and absent any responsibility for children, then you have to work to eat. The food-stamp gravy train is leaving the
station. Still, that new rule doesn't apply to parents with minor-age children in their homes — something Ocasio-Cortez
failed to mention. The new rule also carves out allowances for adults without children who work at least 20 hours
a week to continue receiving food stamps under certain conditions. All in all, America is a pretty generous nation.
Nobody starves in America. Not as the left would like believed.
New
food stamp rules will save taxpayers $5.5 billion over 5 years. According to the government, 40 million
Americans were on food stamps in 2018. In 2017, a little over 9% of households received food stamps at some point and about
16% of all children received food stamps. Under the new rule, most states will no longer be able to exempt food stamp
recipients from work requirements. The work requirements state that adults under age 50 who have no children and are
able-bodied must work a minimum of 20 hours a week for more than three months over three years to qualify for food stamps.
More
than half-a-million people to lose food stamps under new Trump rule. More than a half-a-million people are set
to be thrown off food stamps after the Trump administration on Wednesday approved a new requirement tightening the criteria
to qualify for the public assistance program. The law would ask states to mandate certain work requirements for people
seeking to qualify for the benefits in areas deemed in "economic distress." The rule would apply to only able-bodied adults
without dependents. It is expected to cut the number of people who receive food stamps by more than 600,000 nationwide.
Trump's
Commonsensical Food-Stamp Rule. Our food-stamp program has some bizarre loopholes in it, and the Trump
administration is trying to close them. A new rule finalized today attacks one in particular. In theory, the
program has a strict time limit for "ABAWDs," or able-bodied adults without dependents: If they don't meet their work
requirement or receive a case-by-case exemption from their state, they may receive food stamps for at most three months in
any 36-month period. But in practice, the executive branch has broad discretion to waive the limit for large geographic
areas with weak labor markets — and previous administrations used that discretion promiscuously. [...] Many on the
left complain about the rule simply because it will reduce the number of people on food stamps — by about 700,000,
roughly 2 percent of total food-stamp enrollment, by the administration's own estimate. But increasing benefit receipt
is not an end in itself, especially when it comes at the expense of an incentive for childless, able-bodied adults to find
work; [...]
Trump
administration tightens food stamp work requirements. The Trump administration is tightening work requirements
for the federal food stamp program in a move that will slash benefits for hundreds of thousands of people.
U.S.
Spends $907 Million On Useless "Nutrition Education" For Food Stamp, WIC Recipients. Besides spending tens of
billions of dollars on fraud-infested programs to feed the poor, the U.S. government wastes an additional $907 million to
give recipients useless "nutrition education" courses with rates of effectiveness that cannot be assessed. It marks the
latest scandal to rock the government's famously bloated and corrupt food stamp program as well as a multi-billion-dollar
sister project that feeds millions of low-income women and their children. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
operates and funds both programs and spends a fortune on them annually. The grand master is food stamps, renamed Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by the Obama administration to eliminate the welfare stigma. Under Obama the food stamp
tab reached a ghastly $80.4 billion in one year to provide a record 46 million people with the welfare benefit.
Trump
administration submits proposal to end food stamps 'loophole'. Residents signing up for food stamps in
Minnesota are provided a brochure about domestic violence, but it doesn't matter if they even read the pamphlet. The
mere fact it was made available could allow them to qualify for government food aid if their earnings or savings exceed
federal limits. As odd as that might sound, it's not actually unusual.
White
House proposed new rule will cut 3.1M people from food stamp program. According to U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) officials, the Trump administration will propose a rule Tuesday [7/23/2019] to reduce unwarranted access
to food stamps, removing 3.1 million from the program and saving taxpayers $2.5 billion. President Trump has argued
that many Americans now using SNAP are not in need, given the strong economy and low unemployment. Recommended changes
to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would limit access to food stamps for households with savings and
other assets. The goal is to end automatic eligibility for those already collecting other federal and state assistance.
Food
stamps and online grocery shopping are about to mix. Amazon and Walmart on Thursday kicked off a two-year
government pilot program allowing low-income shoppers on government food assistance in New York to shop and pay for their
groceries online for the first time.
The Editor says...
Food stamp purchases need to be more difficult, not less. This is a step in the wrong direction.
Trump is dismantling Obama's legacy.
Food
Stamp Usage Falls to 37 Million for First Time Since October 2009. The most recent USDA data revealed that
37,911,631 people received food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in December 2018, marking
the lowest level of overall participation in the nation's food stamp program in nearly ten years. The last time overall
participation in food stamps reached this level was in October 2009, when 37,672,818 people were on the government dole,
according to USDA data. Overall food stamp participation had consistently declined since 2013, when the Obama
administration was in power and enrollment in the program reached its highest levels in American history.
Why
have none of you asked why the farm bill was 960 billion dollars? (80% goes to food stamps). If you want to
know how damage immigration is doing to the USA[.] Just look at the farm bill, 80% of this bill goes to food stamps!
This is the outlay in 2014 and its even higher in 2018[.]
Trump
Administration Plans To Make More People Work For Food Stamps. The Trump administration announced on Thursday
that it would move to make sure able-bodied Americans work to receive food stamp benefits, which the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) said could save billions of dollars in taxpayer money each year. The Agriculture Department unveiled
expanded work requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. A move to expand such
requirements was included in a $400 billion farm bill recently passed by Congress, but was stripped out at the last minute.
Trump
Ends Food Stamps For Able Bodied Americans. What Congress didn't have the guts to do in law, Trump will be
doing himself. While so many news people were fixated on whether the government would shut down or not, Congress passed
a very sizable Farm Aid bill. One thing was NOT addressed in that bill, however. Food Stamps eligibility for the
able-bodied. Since they weren't up for it, the President is addressing that issue another way.
Food
Stamp Recipients Down 4,123,082 Under Trump. The number of persons in households participating in the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — also known as food stamps — has declined by
4,123,082 since December 2016, the month before Donald Trump was inaugurated president, according to newly released data from
the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In December 2016, the last full month that President Barack Obama was in office,
there were 42,969,079 people on food stamps, according to USDA. As of August 2018, according to data released last week
by USDA, the number of people on food stamps had declined to 38,845,997.
Food
Stamp Participation Reaches Lowest Level in Nearly a Decade. Participation in the nation's food stamp program
has sunk to an all-time low, reaching its lowest level in nearly a decade, according to the latest data from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA). The most recent USDA data reveals that 38,845,997 Americans took part in the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the federal government program responsible for administering food stamps,
in August 2018.
Thousands
of Amazon workers receive food stamps, and Bernie Sanders wants Amazon to pay up. Sen. Bernie Sanders
(I-Vt.) will soon introduce legislation that would require large employers like Amazon, Walmart and McDonald's to fully cover
the cost of food stamps, public housing, Medicaid and other federal assistance received by their employees. The goal,
he says, is to force corporations to pay a living wage and curb roughly $150 billion in taxpayer dollars that currently
go to funding federal assistance programs for low-wage workers each year. The bill, which Sanders plans to introduce in
the Senate on Sept. 5, would impose a 100 percent tax on government benefits received by workers at companies with
500 or more employees. For example, if an Amazon employee receives $300 in food stamps, Amazon would be taxed $300.
Things that
failed to outrage me this week. [Scroll down] Also on Tuesday [8/7/2018], NBC reported, "The Trump
administration is expected to issue a proposal in coming weeks that would make it harder for legal immigrants to become
citizens or get green cards if they have ever used a range of popular public welfare programs, including Obamacare."
The key part of the story was this, "more than 20 million immigrants could be affected." We have almost
50 million people on food stamps. Is NBC saying 40% of them are immigrants?
Study:
SNAP Recipients Eating Less Nutritious Foods. People receiving government food assistance from the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program are making less nutritious choices than people not receiving assistance, according to a new
study. Published Friday [6/15/2018] in the journal JAMA Network, the study examined dietary patterns of people who
participate in the SNAP program, people with incomes that qualify them for SNAP but do not to receive benefits and people
whose income is too high to qualify for the program. It comes as the administration of President Donald Trump has
proposed revamping the SNAP program and cutting costs dramatically by, among other things, sending food to recipients
instead of letting them choose for themselves.
Farm bill
fails: Work requirements for food stamps, welfare benefits still on the table. After three days of debate
and years of work, the House of Representatives rejected the $867 billion farm bill that included a provision to impose
stricter work requirements on recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps or
SNAP. The farm bill was expected to pass on a strict party-line vote until 30 Republicans rebelled and voted with the
entire Democratic caucus in voting it down. For Democratic opponents, SNAP was the sticking point. After the bill
failed, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., denounced the bill "cruel," "destructive" and "heartless," and called
on both parties to return to the negotiating table to rewrite a bill with bipartisan support.
Time
to Draw a Line on Food Stamps. About 80 percent of the farm bill's spending is on the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps. The rest is mostly pork for agricultural interests. Rumor has
it that President Trump may threaten to veto the bill if it doesn't include reforms to SNAP's work requirements. He
declined to do so at a meeting today with key members of Congress, but he shouldn't hesitate to take this step if it's needed
to move the process along. Fixing food stamps is about the only good thing that could come from a farm bill —
our most storied ritual handout of taxpayer dollars to government-preferred businesses — and the Senate likely
won't go along without this kind of pressure.
Food Stamp
Rolls Decline by More Than 2 Million in FY 2017. In fiscal year 2016, the number of individuals receiving
benefits from the food stamp program totaled 44,219,363. In 2017, that number dropped to 42,182,443 — a decline of
2,036,920. Food stamp participation has declined roughly 9 percent over the last four years. In fiscal year 2014,
there were 46,663,872 individuals on food stamps. Historical data show that while the program has expanded greatly over
time, participation has declined as of late. The USDA has been tracking data on SNAP participation since fiscal year
1969, at which time average participation in the program stood at about 2,878,000. This means that since then,
participation in the program has increased 14-fold.
Two Million Americans
Got Off Food Stamps In Trump's First Year. The number of food stamp dependent Americans hit a six-year low in
President Donald Trump's first year in office, reflecting an improving economy and falling unemployment, according to a U.S.
Agriculture Department (USDA) report. An average of 42.2 million Americans participated in the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP) program in 2017, which is an 11 percent decrease from 2013, when a record number of people used
food stamps, according to USDA. "Federal spending for SNAP totaled $68.0 billion or 4 percent less than in the
previous fiscal year," USDA reported. "This was also 15 percent less than the historical high of $79.9 billion
set in FY 2013." It's the fourth year in a row SNAP participation fell. Previously, the number of people on
food stamps grew for 12 years. About 13 percent of Americans used food stamps in 2017. That's well above
pre-recession levels.
USDA
Opens Public Comment Period For Proposed Food Stamp Reforms. Sweeping new changes could be coming in the way
federal food assistance is delivered. While comparably under the radar to other big Trump administration initiatives
like tax reform and infrastructure, big changes are coming to federal food assistance programs. Currently, more than
40 million Americans rely on the federal food stamps program, now known as SNAP, to buy groceries and other household
necessities. However, incidents of SNAP abuse have been a long-time blemish on the program. The most common
example being that of some SNAP recipients sell their government-provided EBT payment cards for cash. Then-candidate
Trump promised to reduce reliance on the program during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Food
stamp fraud and the opioid epidemic: more reasons to go to food boxes. Food stamp fraud costs a billion dollars
a year and undoubtedly contributes to the opioid epidemic in run down areas, where cashed out food stamps go to the purchase
of illegal drugs. With the risk-to-reward ratio quite high for robbing banks and quite low for food stamp fraud, you
can see why so much of this is going on. Food boxes replacing food stamps would end the problem right away.
Nobody is going to buy government-issued cheese food product at the convenience store counter in exchange for a cut-rate
cash, at least not in bulk, presumably to resell to who knows whom, and certainly not when the revenooers are around looking
for violators.
Why
does replacing food stamps with food so anger liberals? President Trump has proposed replacing some food stamp
grants with actual food. This has curiously enraged liberals, who you would think would be delighted to see "hungry"
people getting food. [...] [P]articipating in SNAP is a character flaw. No one should be on SNAP for years. Get a
job! As for removing choice discouraging personal responsibility, just the opposite. If you want a choice of what
food to buy, get a job!
When It Pays Not to Work.
Welfare is often described as a 'social safety net,' but when a recipient stays home today, he or she may be making more
money than a neighbor who works hard for 40 hours a week.
Trump
Gives Obama Project to Help Food-Stamp Recipients Eat More Fruit & Veggies $16.8 Million. The Trump
administration is throwing more money at a controversial Obama-era program that dedicated tens of millions of dollars to help
food-stamp recipients eat more fruits and vegetables. It was part of a project launched by the former president and his
wife to provide low-income minorities — already getting free groceries from the government — with
healthier foods, compliments of Uncle Sam. In the last two years alone of the Obama presidency the initiative, known as
Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive Grant Program, received an astounding $62.5 million. This month, the Trump
administration announced that the cash will keep flowing via the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the agency that
administers the nation's monstrous food-stamp program.
Trump's
Food Stamp Reform Would Close the Trap of Dependency. President Donald Trump's newly released budget contains a
proposed food stamp reform, which the left has denounced as a "horror" that arbitrarily cuts food stamp benefits by 25 percent.
These claims are misleading. In reality, the president's proposed policy is based on two principles: requiring able-bodied
adult recipients to work or prepare for work in exchange for benefits, and restoring minimal fiscal responsibility to state governments
for the welfare programs they operate. The president's budget reasserts the basic concept that welfare should not be a one-way
handout. Welfare should, instead, be based on reciprocal obligations between recipients and taxpayers.
Food
stamps 'SNAP' back into debate about spending. The cost of Food Stamps, or SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program), has ballooned the past two decades. It went from having a price tag of $17 billion in 2000 to
costing $71 billion last year. That's why President Trump said he wants to clamp down on government-subsidy programs.
[...] About 45 percent of households headed by immigrants with children use food-assistance programs, according to a study by
the National Academy of Sciences. Reports last month said Trump had drafted an executive order that would reduce the number
of immigrants using government assistance.
How
liberals undermine the food stamp program. Congress created the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,
known as SNAP, or food stamps, "to alleviate ... hunger and malnutrition" and to "permit low-income households to obtain a
more nutritious diet through normal channels of trade," in the words of the federal statute establishing the program.
It's a good goal. Whether SNAP is optimally designed to achieve it is a separate question, to which the answer seems
to be "no," according to new research commissioned by the Agriculture Department.
The Brainwashing of a Nation.
Did you ever wonder where the idea of giving awards and trophies for just showing up originated and why whiny millenials
turned out the way they did? The shame factor disappeared from entitlement programs that boosted the self esteem of
those on the dole by substituting EBT cards for food stamp checks. When I was raising our six kids on one paycheck, I
signed up for food stamps but never re-registered because I loathed shopping with them and would have preferred the old
distribution of basic food commodities program. Why was that program eliminated? While we weren't on welfare, my
neighbors were and would give us the food distributed by the program; flour, rice, peanut butter, canned meat, cheese food,
margarine, and more to sustain any family. A recent survey showed that food stamp users were buying soda and junk food
with their EBT cards so really how much healthier are the poor now?
USDA
study reveals what food stamps are really spent on. The food stamp program has been a fraud magnet from the
start. [...] There are no doubt people who need help putting food on the table. I wish the nannies would focus on those
who eat at taxpayer expense in imposing limits like Bloomberg's soda cup and salt limits. There is evidence that they need the
advice more than people who pay their own way. And financing a system as easy to cheat on as this simply invites predators.
Food-Stamp
Recipients Can Order from Amazon, Other Online Retailers. Food-stamp recipients can use their taxpayer-funded benefit to order online
from retailers like Amazon under a new Obama administration initiative that aims to facilitate the shopping experience for rural and urban residents.
It marks the latest of many costly experiments by the administration to expand the fraud-infested program, which has seen a record-high number of
beneficiaries under President Obama. To eliminate the welfare stigma, the administration renamed food stamps Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP) and the rolls swelled to an astounding 46.5 million in 2016. This cost American taxpayers and eye-popping $70 billion,
according to government figures.
Under
Obama, 10.7 Million More Use Food Stamps — A 32 Percent Jump. As President Obama prepares to leave
office, his legacy will include an increase in the number of Americans using food stamps. The number of food stamps
recipients went up by 10.7 million people, a 32 percent jump, since President Obama took office in 2009, according to
data released by the Department of Agriculture (USDA). In 2009, 33,490,000 people received food stamp benefits. As of
October 2016, the last month reported for FY 2016, 44,219,123 people received food stamp benefits, an increase of about 10,729,000.
Time for a Fresh
Look at SNAP. The House Agriculture Committee just released a lengthy report on the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps. The report — Past, Present, & Future of SNAP — is
a comprehensive review of the federal government's costliest food program, which has a projected budget of $82 billion
in 2017. Republicans in Congress have been eyeing changes to SNAP, and President Trump may have the chance to sign
the first major reforms to this program since 1996. Under the Obama administration, participation in SNAP spiked from
26 million people in 2007 to almost 48 million people in 2013. [...] A morass of federal and state agencies that
oversee 18 different food-assistance programs leads to overlap and waste, another problem the next Congress could tackle.
Although SNAP is federally funded, it's administered at the state level with little coordination between it and other
public-aid offices, which sows fertile ground for fraud and misuse.
The
Obama Legacy: 13 Million More Americans On Food Stamps. Obama's legacy can be described as an epic
failure. Not for Republicans who have made historic gains during the eight years of failure. But the American
people have gotten worse under Hussein Obama. Aside from doubling the national debt in eight years, another number that
rarely gets mentioned is the amount of people on food stamps and welfare. Under Obama, 13 million more Americans
have gone on food stamps and welfare. As bad as it was under Dubya Bush, it's worse under Obama.
Food
Stamp Craze: U.S. Spends $3.6 Billion to Give $70 Billion in Benefits. Not only does the government spend a breathtaking
$70 billion a year to give a record number of people food stamps, it wastes billions more to administer the bloated welfare program.
Some states spend a lot more than others to distribute the free food vouchers and the discrepancies are downright outrageous. The government
dedicates $3.6 billion annually just to administer food stamps (renamed Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP] to eliminate stigma),
according to a federal audit that includes mind-boggling figures. For instance, California, the state with by far the largest food-stamp
roll, spends a lot more than the national average to execute the federal nutrition program. The Golden State doles out an average of
$34.06 a month for each of its 2 million food stamp cases while other states, like Ohio, spend only $9.55. Some California counties
are off the charts with administration costs.
Bureaucrats Take Fat Cut of Food Stamp Largesse.
What's in it for the government to take wealth from those who earned it and give to those who didn't? Power, of
course. The money isn't given for nothing; it buys votes. But also, Big Government takes a cut of the
loot — a fat cut.
States
Did Not Enforce Work Requirements for Food Stamp Recipients. States did not always enforce work requirements
for food stamp recipients before giving them benefits because doing so was "too burdensome" for them, according to an audit
from the Department of Agriculture's Inspector General. The Food and Nutrition Service established work requirements
for Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program participants who are able-bodied adults without dependents, fall in the age
range of 18 to 49, and are not disabled. These individuals are required to work 20 hours or more each week or
participate in a qualifying work activity. If an individual does not meet this work requirement, he can only receive
benefits for three months in a span of three years.
Obama
Admin. Opens The Internet To Food Stamp Purchases. The federal government is taking food stamp purchases
to the internet, launching a two-year pilot program to experiment with allowing food stamp users to buy their groceries
online. Thursday the Obama Administration announced that it is looking for retailer volunteers to participate in the
nationwide test program. "Online purchasing shows great promise to improve access to healthy food for [Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program] participants living in neighborhoods and rural or tribal areas without grocery stores,"
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, said in a statement.
Right
Now We Have Longest Soup Lines In History of America, You Just Can't See Them. Factually, if the number of
American people on EBT or SNAP welfare benefits had to line up for soup and meals (instead of just get money on an electronic
card for use anywhere), there would be massive lines, miles-long lines, all day and all night in hundreds of thousands
of soup kitchens nation-wide. Such visibility would make the soup lines of the great depression seem insignificant by
comparison. The EBT and SNAP cards are exactly that, "Electronic Soup Cards".
Food
Stamp Rolls Drop as States Decline Federally Funded Benefit. Food-stamp enrollment in the U.S. is declining
from record levels, in part because some states are ending benefits earlier than they have to. Seven states, all led by
Republicans, have decided this year to end waivers for some able-bodied recipients that were made available in the 2009
federal stimulus bill — even though the benefits are federally funded. Enrollment in what's formally known
as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is still nearly twice the level it was before the recession. But the
most recent data, for May, showed 43.5 million people were receiving food stamps, down 9 percent from a 2012 peak
and the fewest since 2010.
The Editor says...
Bias alert: This Bloomberg writer apparently believes those evil Republicans are cutting off
the gravy "even though the benefits are federally funded" — so they don't cost anything!.
7
States Are Ready To Cut Special Post-Recession Food Stamp Program. Several states are unilaterally ending the waivers on work
requirements for food stamps, which were part of the post-recession stimulus package, before federally required to end the waivers.
The 2009 stimulus allowed states to waive the work requirement for food stamps recipients, and gave federal money to cover the extra
costs. States had to request the waivers, and now Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and
New Jersey, join other states ending the program early, Bloomberg reports.
Welfare is
the new work. The welfare/entitlement state of mind has spiraled out of control in America. No one is
lifting a finger of opposition. The cost of welfare is now well over $1 trillion a year. Food stamps are so
ubiquitous that they have replaced dollars as the new standard currency in many inner cities in America. Even in affluent
areas with upscale grocery stores, food stamp recipients fill their carts with everything from cakes to lobster. Liberals
love welfare. It was only a few years ago that Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi opined that putting more people on
food stamps and unemployment insurance is one of the "best ways to stimulate the economy." Which is more astonishing?
That she believes this lunacy or that she would be dumb enough to say it out loud.
As
a Teen Cashier Seeing Food Stamp Use, I Changed My Mind About the Democrat Party. [Scroll down] I also
learned how people gamed the welfare system. They'd buy two dozen packs of soda with food stamps and then sell them at
a discount for cash. They'd ring up their orders separately, buying food with food stamps, and beer, wine, and
cigarettes with cash. They'd regularly go through the checkout line speaking on their cell phones. I could never
understand why our lives felt like a struggle while those living off of government largesse enjoyed trinkets that I only
dreamed about. [...] Every two weeks, I'd get a small paycheck and notice the line where federal and state income taxes were
deducted from my wages. At least as often, our drug-addict neighbor would buy T-bone steaks, which I was too poor to
buy for myself but was forced by Uncle Sam to buy for someone else.
Feds Spend
$564,231 on Farmers' Markets for Refugees. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is spending over $500,000 to
start farmers markets for refugees on food stamps. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) enrolls 10,000 refugees in
the United States every year onto the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps. The
group received the funding to provide "culturally-appropriate" corner stores and food markets. "The IRC will expand and
deepen the impact of its successful Fresh Fund incentive program over the next four years in seven refugee-rich neighborhoods
across Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Baltimore, and Charlottesville," according to the grant, part of a $16.8 million effort
announced by the agency last week to get food stamp enrollees to eat more vegetables. The agency said refugees and
immigrants in the United States are simultaneously at risk for "under-nutrition and obesity, and are highly dependent on SNAP
to meet nutritional needs."
The Editor says...
I don't think I have ever seen a single article packed with so much Newspeak. The "refugees" are Muslims. They are "highly
dependent on SNAP," which means they don't have jobs and will be a perpetual burden to the public, even if they aren't coming
here to kill us. The government is going to "provide 'culturally-appropriate' corner stores and food markets," meaning halal food
will be provided at government expense exclusively and specifically for Muslims.
Obama
Food-Stamp Free-for-All: Feds Bust Largest Fraud Operation in U.S. History. President Obama's expanded
food-stamp program certifying flea market retailers as vendors to provide low-income neighborhoods with fresh produce has
ripped open a Pandora's Box of fraud and corruption. This week federal authorities in south Florida busted the largest
food-stamp fraud operation in U.S. history. Twenty-two defendants in the largely black and Hispanic areas of Miami-Dade
County known as Opa-Locka and Hialeah swindled the government out of $13 million by fraudulently trading food stamps for
cash. The crooked vendors operated food and produce stands at a local flea market as part of First Lady Michelle
Obama's initiative to eradicate "food deserts," common in poor, minority communities where fresh, healthy food is tough to
find or often unavailable.
Food
Stamp Beneficiaries Exceed 45 Million for 56 Straight Months. There were 45,188,655 beneficiaries of the food
stamp program in December 2015, the latest month for which data is available. The number declined by 265,216 from November to
December. The USDA has been tracking data on participation in the program since 1969, when average participation stood at
2,878,000. Since then, participation in the program has increased by more than 1,470 percent. The number of food stamp
recipients first exceeded 45 million in May 2011. Since then, the number has consistently exceeded 45 million, hitting a
record high of nearly 47.8 million in December 2012.
USDA:
Retailers That Accept SNAP Must Expand 'Healthy Food' Choices; 168 Items Per Store. The U.S. Agriculture Department on Tuesday [2/16/2016]
announced a proposed rule intended to give food stamp (SNAP) recipients increased access to healthy foods, by requiring stores that accept SNAP to stock a
wider variety of healthy food choices. "USDA is committed to expanding access for SNAP participants to the types of foods that are important to a
healthy diet," USDA Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Kevin Concannon said in a news release. "This proposed rule ensures
that retailers who accept SNAP benefits offer a variety of products to support healthy choices for those participating in the program."
The Editor says...
Instead of putting the burden on small businesses and dictating to the stores what they must put on the shelves, why not restrict the use of the food stamp card
to the most basic staples, like bread, cheese, milk, and peanut butter? And why not put sensible limits on the use of such a card, or food stamps in general,
like a six month expiration date, and a maximum throughput of $150 a week?
Maine
mayor pushing bill to post welfare recipients' addresses online. A Maine mayor is proposing a controversial
name-and-shame strategy for welfare recipients, saying he plans to push a bill requiring the state to publish the names and
addresses and other details for "every individual on the dole." Robert Macdonald, mayor of Lewiston, Maine, pitched the
plan in his regular column for the Twin City Times. He noted that a website already lists information on state pensioners,
and complained that "liberal, progressive legislators" think similar information on welfare recipients should be private.
"Well, the days of being quiet are gone," he wrote. "We will be submitting a bill to the next legislative session asking that
a website be created containing the names, addresses, length of time on assistance and the benefits being collected by every
individual on the dole. "After all, the public has a right to know how its money is being spent," Macdonald said.
The
Obama Recovery in 9 Simple Charts.
Most
states waiving work requirements for food stamps, despite improving job market. Most
states still are waiving work requirements for those on food stamps, raising concerns that despite
an improving job market the Obama administration is feeding government dependency — and
all at the expense of taxpayers. Forty-four of the 50 states have to some degree eased
work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food
stamps: 30 states grant waivers state-wide, while another 14 issue partial waivers in
areas of high unemployment.
Food
Stamp Beneficiaries Have Exceeded 45 Million For 48 Straight Months. The number of
beneficiaries of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), otherwise known as food
stamps, has exceeded 45 million for 48 straight months, according to data released by the Department
of Agriculture (USDA). In April 2015, the latest month from which data is available, there were
45,438,832 beneficiaries of the food stamp program.
Soon
You Might Be Able To Receive Food Stamps Over The Phone. Soon it could be possible to
apply for food stamps over the phone, with proponents arguing that in-person interviews add too much
extra administrative cost. A report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) looked at
whether it should get rid of in-person interviews for those who apply to receive benefits under the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is commonly known as food stamps. The
program is the nation's largest food-assistance program.
How
can you shame those with no shame? People tell me stuff, and I print it or post it online — that's
my job. I thought this was called reporting, but now I find out that I am engaged in something called "EBT shaming."
Apparently posting supermarket receipts online is now a hate crime, at least in the trust-funded world of the moonbats.
Time
To Go On The Offense Against Liberalism. Perhaps I would be a bit more charitable if
over the last week I had not been barraged with obscenities, death wishes, and threats for daring to
opine that being on EBT is something you should be ashamed of. But when progressives invite you
to die because you'd prefer not to subsidize lay-about Democrat-voting losers, it clarifies things.
Leftists want you dead, or at least enslaved, and you can tell that because they can't keep themselves
from telling you that.
46
Million on Food Stamps for 36 Months in a Row. According to newly released numbers
from the United States Department of Agriculture (which oversees the food stamp program), food stamp
enrollments in September 2011 were 46,268,250 and never fell below 46 million up and through
September 2014 (the most recent month for which numbers are available), when 46,459,998 individuals
received food stamps. The 36 unbroken months of food stamps enrollments above 46 million
paints an economic portrait of a citizenry frozen in place.
Food
Stamp Recipients Top 46 Million for 35th Straight Month. The number of Americans on
food stamps has topped 46,000,000 for 35 straight months, according to data from the Department of
Agriculture (USDA). From September 2011 through July 2014, the latest month for which data is
available, the number of persons participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP) has exceeded 46 million. As of July 2014, there were 46,486,434 beneficiaries
of the SNAP program.
Obama's
USDA to Spend $31.5 Million on 'Healthy' Food Stamp Program. The Department of
Agriculture, the agency that administers the food stamp program, has announced that it will spend
$31.5 million on a new program that will promote a healthy diet for recipients of the assistance.
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture, a division of the Department of Agriculture, is developing
the program to urge recipients of the SNAP food stamp program to choose more fruits and fresh foods.
Food
Stamp Sign-Ups Outnumber Jobs Created in Obama's Illinois. Among the many metrics that
show Obama's home state is struggling to break the Great Recession, a new report shows that
applications for food stamps in Illinois is greater than its creation of jobs. Illinois has had
the worst recovery from the recession of any state in the country, the Illinois Policy Institute
reported this month: "There are nearly 300,000 fewer Illinoisans working today than in January 2008,
and 170,000 fewer payroll jobs.
Bring Back The Welfare
Stigma. "Once Stigmatized," the New York Times reported a few years ago, "Food Stamps Find New
Acceptance." One food bank employee told a gainfully-employed young man to sign up for the program
because "there was enough aid to go around and that use would demonstrate continuing need." Eight years
into Mike Bloomberg's mayoral tenure, the number of residents on food stamps had hit over one-and-a-half
million people; a stunning 20 percent of households nationwide were enrolled in SNAP. [...]
[I]f there's one thing at which the Left truly bristles, it's an independent citizenry that can provide
for itself without the Left's benevolent help.
Chicago Public
Schools Now Phoning Home to Make Sure Kids Are Signed Up for Welfare. Last week, parents of children enrolled
in Chicago Public Schools received a recorded phone message encouraging them to sign up for low-cost health insurance and
food stamps: [...] So many in our society are pushing more people to sign up for food stamps and are placing less importance
on the need to create jobs. Yet, how can anyone ever claim our nation is in a "recovery" when 47 million
Americans depend on the government to feed them?
Fast Food
Restaurants Accepting Food Stamps. Just when I thought I'd heard it all, now fast
food restaurants want Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients to be eligible to use
their food stamp benefit at selected restaurants. Restaurants such as Taco Bell, KFC and Subway
believe that there are certain types of SNAP recipients who are homeless or living in conditions
that do not allow them hot meals and these people would benefit from being able to use their food
benefit at fast food restaurants. Seriously? Fresno, Calif., officials are considering
legislation that would permit SNAP benefits to be used at fast food restaurants in their area.
Arizona, Michigan and other parts of California already allow the practice and Kentucky is
currently considering it.
Chicago
Public School system pushing food stamps. Chicago Public School parents received robocalls last
week encouraging them to sign their children up for food stamps and free or low-cost health insurance.
"Currently there are 68,000 children in the Chicago Public Schools that are not enrolled in free or low-cost
health insurance and SNAP also knows as food stamps," the recording, obtained by The Daily Caller, says.
"Your child may be one of them. To find out more about your eligibility call the Children and Family
Benefits Unit [...]"
Democrats are making income inequality worse. Seventy percent of Agriculture
Department spending funds food services. Nearly 48 million people — almost as many live on the West Coast (in
California, Oregon and Washington) — receive food stamps. This dependency, inimical to upward mobility, is assiduously
cultivated by government through "outreach initiatives" to "increase awareness" and "streamline the application process." Between
2000, when 17 million received food stamps, and 2006, food stamp spending doubled, even though unemployment averaged just
5.1 percent. A few states have food stamp recruiters.
Bill Would Make Food Stamp Recipients
Show Photo ID. A group of House conservatives have introduced legislation to require that people using food stamps show a photo ID
whenever using them. The bill, introduced by Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.), would "amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to require households
that receive supplemental nutrition assistance benefits to present photographic verification at the time food is purchased with such benefits."
You Work, They Eat.
House-passed
farm bill bans gov't from food stamp advertising, promotion. A new House-passed farm bill bans the Department of Agriculture
from actively recruiting or advertising for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. [...] The
legislation further instructs the secretary of agriculture to issue regulations banning outside entities that receive funding from
recruiting for SNAP.
White House Slam
GOP's Food Stamp Reforms in Thanksgiving Message. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama's White House politicized Thanksgiving
to promote the reauthorization of the SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program) or "food stamps" as part of the farm bill at a time
when a record number of Americans are receiving assistance. In an email, the White House urged Americans sitting down for Thanksgiving
Dinner to remember: "For decades, Congress has authorized SNAP in a bipartisan fashion through the Farm Bill. They don't have
to do it in a way that hurts children, seniors, veterans, and vulnerable families. Learn more, and pass it on."
A Farm Bill in Name Only. Hard as it may be to believe,
80 percent of the farm bill being hammered out by the Senate and the House of Representatives is made up not of agriculture programs,
but of food stamps. [...] Why are food stamps rolled into the legislation? They're included "purely from a political perspective,"
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), ranking member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, said earlier this year.
"It helps get the farm bill passed." At least it used to.
Newspaper presses FOIA
fight for food stamp payment data. South Dakota's Argus Leader newspaper urged a federal appeals court Wednesday to reverse a ruling blocking
the newspaper from receiving data on how much the federal government pays to stores that redeeem food stamp benefits. Jon Arneson, an attorney for the
newspaper, told a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit that a lower court judge misinterpreted the law by ruling that a confidentiality
provision for retailer applications allowed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to withhold all data on payments to those retailers.
Obama's America: 7-Eleven Promoting EBT Pizza.
Mini-mart chain 7-Eleven is promoting $5.55 large pizzas which is nothing unusual, but what caught my eye is that 7-Eleven is promoting how to purchase
the pizza. 7-Eleven is promoting EBT Pizza. Food stamp usage has sharply increased since Barack Obama took office. We've gone from
28 million Americans on food stamps at the end of George W. Bush's second term in 2008 to over 47 Million in President Obama's fifth year
in office. American's using food stamps has almost doubled in five years [...]
Senators
full of reasons why EBT reform won't work. They always have an excuse, the State House hacks do, for why their beloved welfare recipients
are behaving badly. It's never the layabouts' fault, of course. And if you suggest doing anything to reduce the waste, fraud and abuse,
well, there's always a reason the reform won't work — much like the welfare recipients themselves.
Congress
likely to reduce food stamp funding in new farm bill. The Senate on Monday opened debate on a $955 billion farm
bill that would reduce federal spending by as much as $23 billion over the next 10 years by cutting funding for food
stamps and eliminating some farm-support programs. "This legislation will create jobs, cut taxpayer subsidies and reduce the
deficit," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Monday [5/20/2013].
USDA spending
$4 million to increase food stamp use at farmers markets. The Department of Agriculture announced a $4 million
dollar, expanded-eligibility plan to increase food stamp access at farmers markets this week. Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin
Concannon announced that in an effort to make more produce readily available to participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP), or food stamp program, the agency is expanding the use of wireless point-of-sale equipment to farmers markets and direct
marketing farmers who do not already have such equipment.
Thune:
Food stamp participation has increased at 10 times the rate of job creation under Obama. South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune
and Indiana Republican Rep. Marlin Stutzman introduced legislation Thursday [4/18/2013] aimed at saving $30 billion in the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program over a decade. Thune and Stutzman said their "Streamlining the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Act" would eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse and close loopholes in a program that, under President Obama, has seen participation increase from
32 million to 47.8 million people and spending double to $80 billion in fiscal year 2012.
This is probably satire, but I can't be too sure.
US
Financial Industry to Replace the Dollar with Food Stamps. As experts ponder the implications of America's stepping-back
from world political leadership, finance professionals are openly discussing what the world will be like without the US dollar as
the primary unit of international and domestic trade. In the meantime, American businesses are considering the benefits of
a new economy based on food stamps.
Many
think "welfare" no longer belongs in Pa. agency's name. The name Department of Public Welfare was no doubt seen as
an improvement when the state came up with it nearly a century ago, merging two older offices — the Board of Charities and the
Committee on Lunacy. But now, 90 years later, Pennsylvania is one of just two states in the nation that still use the
word welfare in the name of the massive agency that serves mainly the elderly, disabled, and children.
Food stamp president:
Enrollment up 70 percent under Obama. Enrollment in the food stamp program — officially the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program — has soared by 70 percent in the years since President Obama first took office, a new report finds.
The government said the recession ended in 2009, The Wall Street Journal reports, but enrollment in the food stamp program didn't wane, as
would be expected in an improving economy. Since 2008, it's been on a steady rise, The Journal reports. A record 47.8 million
people participate in the program, as of December 2012 — a figure that translates into a 70 percent rise since 2008, The
Journal says.
Food Stamp
Nation: R.I. Town Shows Leftism's Dead End. A little town in Rhode Island shows where liberalism and all its talk of
economic "security" ultimately leads — a stale economy and suffocating dependence on big government.
When stigma is replaced by a sense of entitlement, the result is arrogance.
Food
stamp recipients, feds cast doubt on Haley proposal. West Ashley [South Carolina] resident Shirley Wilson gets $32 a month in food stamp
vouchers, and she said it's not the government's business to tell her what kind of food she should be able to buy with them. "Nobody
should tell me how to eat, except when I'm dying and a doctor puts me on restrictions," said Wilson, shopping at Save-A-Lot in West Ashley
Tuesday afternoon [3/26/2013]. "Why are you going to tell me how to spend $32?"
Getting On The Gravy Train [is]
Easier Than Ever — If You've Lost All Pride. It's no mystery to explain the huge numbers of Americans filing for
unemployment when it is becoming as easy as surfing the net for social networks. Politicians are always trying to make it
easy for people to file for food stamps, Medicaid, HEAP, and other benefits not because they give a whit for the needy but because
they expect those entitled to keep them in office. If the process is difficult for some, those who know how to work the system
will find it a breeze.
Food stamps put Rhode Island town on monthly boom-and-bust cycle. Three years into
an economic recovery, this is the lasting scar of collapse: a federal program that began as a last resort for a few million hungry
people has grown into an economic lifeline for entire towns. Spending on SNAP has doubled in the past four years and tripled in the
past decade, surpassing $78 billion last year.
46,609,072 People on Food Stamps
in 2012; Record 47,791,996 in December. On Friday [3/8/2013], the United States Department of Agriculture quietly
released new statistics related to the food stamps program, officially known as SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).
The numbers reveal, in 2012, the food stamps program was the biggest it's ever been, with an average of 46,609,072 people on the
program every month of last year. 47,791,996 people were on the program in the month of December 2012.
Food
Stamps: Policy or Political Payoff. The [food stamp] program was intended to be supplemental; not a replacement
for a family's entire food budget. It follows that an increasing number of families might have difficulty putting food on
the table. A closer look at the situation, however, raises some concerns. The first is that people are not necessarily
"turning to" food stamps, as much as they are being recruited to receive them. Since 2008, the USDA has produced
Spanish language radio advertisements about SNAP, with the expressed goal of increasing the number of Spanish speaking
individuals receiving food stamps.
The Facts on Food Stamps. That SNAP, or
food stamps, has expanded under "Dear Leader" Barack Hussein Obama is not debatable. In fact, a report released in September
2012, by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) showed that about 45 million individuals are now enrolled in the food stamp
program, more than double the number that were enrolled in 2003, when George Walker Bush was president. We taxpayers spent, in
FY2012, a record $80.4 billion on SNAP, or food stamps, an increase of $2.7 billion over FY2011. Further, according to
Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), food stamp spending has increased by 100 percent during the Obama reign.
The Wages of Unemployment.
There are over 30 million more Americans receiving food stamps today than in 2000. [...] Compare 2010 with October 2012, the last
month for which food-stamp data have been reported. [...] Food-stamp usage should have peaked and probably even begun to decline.
Yet the number of recipients rose by 7,223,000. In a period of falling unemployment and rising output, the number of food-stamp
recipients grew nearly 10,000 a day. Congress should find out why.
New data show 1 in 4 children on food
stamps in FY 2011. One in four children in America participated in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, in
fiscal year 2011, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture and U.S. Census Bureau.
Panic In California As
Thousands Of Food Stamps Cards Suffer Brief Outage. This past weekend, as part of a system update to the CalWIN software of
California's Social Services department, HP accidentally cancelled EBT cards for some 37,000 Californians. [...] The OC Register reports that
eighteen counties were affected in the CalFresh chaos (the 'friendly' name given to California's food stamp program — also formerly
known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP).
Obama's Food Stamp Mania.
It was great when we started referring to Barack Obama as the "food stamp president" — and such a fitting title for the current head
of the White House. Unfortunately liberals eat up government dependency, and they started wearing the new phrase as a badge of honor.
Foodstamps, Foodstamps, ...
A woman who argued with a grocery store manager about what is and is not paid for (with our tax dollars) by foodstamps was, she
claims, humiliated by the store manager. You simply won't believe this. A woman argued, while in the check-out line,
about what was and was not paid for by foodstamps. The disputed amount was $10. When the manager relented, the
woman said, "'See, I told you it was covered by food stamps." The manager responded, "Excuse me for working for a living
and not relying on food stamps!" The unbelievable part is that the
grocery store manager was transferred to another
store.
Food-stamp folly. Do you know what
Maryland gives its welfare recipients so they can access cash and food benefits? An "Independence Card." If that sounds a bit Orwellian,
consider the perverse spending increases that the Obama administration has planned for food stamps and an array of other forms of welfare.
Why perverse? Because the whole goal of the successful welfare reform of the 1990s was to reduce dependence. And the president's budget
would do just the opposite.
Welcome to the welfare state: Obama's 'badge of honor'.
Nancy Pelosi says President Obama should embrace the "Food Stamp President" label as a badge of honor — and he has.
Food stamp use has risen 100 percent in three years. Welfare reform has been rolled back through work requirement waivers.
The USDA holds "food stamp parties" to hook seniors, and Obama's Ag secretary calls welfare "economic stimulus."
New American Food-Stamp Plantation
is a SNAP. Liberals tells us that this program's mind-boggling growth is explained by our foundering economy. But, as
Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama points out, spending on this program increased 100 percent from 2001 to 2006, a period over which
there was no increase in the rate of unemployment. From 2007 to 2011, spending increased 135 percent. But CBO attributes only
about 65 percent of the dramatic growth in program spending and the number of recipients to the recession. Here's what else has
happened: It has become increasingly easy to qualify for SNAP benefits, the government has been spending more taxpayer funds promoting
the program, and the stigma of SNAP, food stamps, being perceived as a welfare program has disappeared.
Hey,
it all depends on the meaning of 'demeaning'. Gov. Deval Patrick doesn't like "anecdotes." You know, all those
news stories that are so embarrassing for his most loyal supporters and the welfare programs that enable them to live high on the hog.
Like the convicted heroin dealer from Roxbury who used his EBT card for bail money. [...] John Adams once said that facts are
stubborn things. So are anecdotes, because they tend to be based on facts. And so it was that this week the Democrat-controlled
House voted 152-1 to override Gov. Anecdote's vetoes of certain mild reforms in the welfare program known as EBT cards.
USDA combats 'mountain pride,'
self-reliance to boost food stamp rolls. One in seven Americans are on food stamps, but the government is pushing to enroll
more — in many instances working to overcome Americans' "pride," self-reliance or failure to see a need. "Our common goal is to
increase participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program," the United States Department of Agriculture explains on its "Outreach Toolkits"
page. "Our purpose is to ensure that those going through difficult times can feed their families healthy, nutritious food. By working as a
team, we can accomplish these goals."
Therese Murray taking us
all for an EBT cab ride. So we're not going to have a real crackdown on EBT card fraud after all. [...] It was clear that
last week's 122-33 House vote to tighten the EBT rules was just a charade — to give taxpayers the illusion of doing something
while the Democrats continued coddling their constituents in the non-working classes.
'Nothing to see' mantra
costly. EBT, of course, stands for Everybody But Taxpayers. Anyone opposed to putting a halt to the
fraud will be dismissed as mean-spirited, racist, xenophobic, or all of the above.
Gov, time to
book these 'anecdotes'. Another 32 EBT "anecdotes" arrested or cited yesterday [4/19/2012] and charged
with welfare fraud. [...] One Vietnamese immigrant store owner in Quincy was charged with $700,000 in welfare
fraud. [...] The average layabout collects $450 a month on his card. And 20,000 cards are "lost" every
month (and then replaced at no charge). Do the math — could be close to $9 million a month
in fraud, just on those "lost" cards. Yet Deval's appointees claim it's too expensive to put the welfare
recipient's photo on the card.
USDA suggests food stamp parties, games
to increase participation. While spending on the food stamp program has increased 100 percent under President Barack Obama, the
government continues to push more Americans to enroll in the welfare program. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has embraced
entire promotional campaigns designed to encourage eligible Americans to participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food
stamps. A pamphlet currently posted at the USDA website encourages local SNAP offices to throw parties as one way to get potentially eligible
seniors to enroll in the program.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program:
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides benefits to help people in low-income households
purchase food. In fiscal year 2010, households receiving SNAP benefits had annual income (other than those
benefits) that averaged about $8,800; SNAP benefits averaged about $4.30 per person per day. Nearly 45 million
recipients, one out of every seven U.S. residents, received SNAP benefits in an average month in fiscal year 2011.
Total federal spending for the program was $78 billion.
USDA
Spends $5 Mil To Recruit Food-Stamp Recipients. The number of food-stamp recipients has
skyrocketed in the last few years yet the Obama Administration keeps wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to
recruit more participants in the name of eradicating "food insecure households." The latest
publicly-financed campaign to boost the food-stamp rolls — officially known as Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program or SNAP — was announced this month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agency
that administers it. The USDA is dedicating $5 million this year to "improve access to and
increase participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program."
State Gets $5 Mil
Bonus For Food Stamp Sign Up. In its quest to promote taxpayer-funded entitlement programs, the
Obama Administration has actually rewarded one state with a $5 million bonus for its efficiency in adding
food-stamp recipients to already bulging rolls. It's part of the administration's campaign to eradicate
"food insecure households" by improving access and increasing participation in the government's Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Incidentally, the program was recently changed to SNAP to eliminate
the stigma that comes with a name like food stamps.
Food Stamp Millionaire.
If you have any uncertainty regarding the responsibility for the nearly bankrupt status of the state of Michigan and its
cultural and philosophical epicenter, Detroit, take a gander at the state's food stamp program.
Michigan
man still on food stamps despite winning $2M. A man who won $2 million on a Michigan lottery show has told a
TV station that he still uses food stamps. Leroy Fick of Bay County admitted he still swipes the electronic card at stores,
nearly a year after winning a jackpot on "Make Me Rich!" He told WNEM-TV in Saginaw that more than half the prize went
to taxes.
Update:
Lottery
winner's luck running out. The luck of Leroy Fick, Michigan's 59-year-old "Food Stamp Millionaire" —
a lottery winner on government food assistance — appeared to be running out Wednesday [5/25/2011] as state officials
worked to get him off the dole.
Grown-up babies.
Not from nowhere has this stubborn, self-destructive sense of entitlement sprung. As I reported last month,
a record-breaking 12 million Americans have been added to the federal food stamp rolls over the past two years,
and the bloated $6 billion AmeriCorps social justice army has been converted into a publicist corps for the
welfare machine. Just this week, a Michigan man boasted that he's still collecting food stamps after winning
a $2 million government-sponsored lottery prize. "If you're going to ... try to make me feel bad, you
aren't going to do it," he told a local TV reporter. Embedded in his rebuke is the eternal refrain of the
self-esteem-puffed teenager: "You can't judge me!"
Somewhat related:
USDA Wants RFID Tracking Technology To Be Mandatory
In US Food Stamp Program. The USDA is now considering biometric identification for all individuals who will want to benefit from their Food and Nutrition
Services. The RFID chip may just soon be a must for everyone who does not want to starve!
More information about
the demise of stigma.
Welfare-to-work programs:
Get back to work, or go hungry.
How a
Judicial Hack Halted Kentucky's Medicaid Work Plan. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, providing a timely
object lesson in leftwing judicial activism, has vacated the Medicaid work rules created by the state of Kentucky and
approved by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). The ostensible basis of the ruling is that the Secretary of HHS
approved the program in an "arbitrary and capricious manner," but its text reveals that the judge's reasoning has more to do
with personal ideology than federal law. Much of the decision is devoted to scolding President Trump and his administration
for daring to alter Obamacare's Medicaid expansion in any manner. In a ruling rife with partisan editorial commentary Judge
Boasberg sniffs, "It is no secret that the current administration hopes to 'prompt[ly] repeal the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act,'" as if such aspirations are somehow immoral.
Federal
judge blocks Kentucky's Medicaid work requirements. A federal judge says Kentucky can't require poor people to
get a job to keep their Medicaid benefits, chastising President Donald Trump's administration for rubber-stamping the new
rules without considering how many people would lose their health coverage.
Why
Does The Left Oppose Work Requirements For Welfare? Attacks on President Trump's push for work requirements to
get welfare benefits fall into two categories: Either the work rules are pointless, or they are inhumane. Neither
is correct.
President Trump Has Signed
an Executive Order Pushing Work Requirements in Return for Welfare. President Donald Trump signed an executive order
Tuesday [4/10/2018] that aims to add and strengthen work requirements for public assistance and other welfare programs.
Congress
set to battle over food stamps work requirement. Lawmakers are poised this month to wage a major battle over
the House version of the Farm Bill, which will call for work requirements in the federal food stamp program that serves the
poor. The heated partisan fight has stalled the legislation before it has even been introduced. The normally
routine sign-off on the bill by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas, and ranking member Collin
Peterson, D-Minn., hasn't happened because Democrats are staunchly opposed to Conaway's plan to add a 20-hour work or job
training requirement for some able-bodied recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the formal name for
the food stamp program.
A
Chance To Really End Welfare As We Know It. Thanks to a revived economy spinning out jobs, the number of people
on food stamps dropped by 2 million people last year, according to a new report. That's great news, both for those who
are leaving food stamps and for taxpayers. And more can — and should — be done.
As
food stamp rolls climb to record highs, states seek work requirements for recipients. A failure to impose work
requirements on parents receiving food stamp benefits has entrapped millions of Americans in welfare dependency and resulted
in spiraling costs and soaring enrollments, according to a study released last month. The Florida-based Foundation for
Government Accountability's report, "The Case for Expanding Food Stamp Work Requirements to Parents," says the number of
Americans who receive the nutritional benefits through the federal government is now more than 12.2 million, up from
4.7 million in the year 2000.
Get Off the Couch, If
You Want Medicaid. Last week the Trump administration announced it will allow states to impose a "community
engagement" requirement on healthy adults getting Medicaid, the public health insurance program for lower income people.
So far, ten states intend to do it, though not welfare-haven New York. To get Medicaid, adults in these states will have to
work or look for a job, study for a high school diploma, learn English as a second language, volunteer, get addiction treatment, or
take care of a family member. In short, do something. Democrats and the liberal media call the requirement "cruel" and
"pathological." Baloney. There's no reason taxpayers should pick up the tab for able-bodied people who won't get
off the couch. Medicaid was created in 1965 as a safety net health program for pregnant women, children and the disabled.
Then Obamacare distorted it into permanent insurance, raising the allowable income level and opening it up to healthy adults who
refuse to work. The Medicaid rolls now top 74 million, and are projected to reach 87 million within a decade.
As Medicaid dependence soars, the left brags that more people are "covered." Technically true, but misleading. Medicaid's
ballooning enrollment is creating a national crisis.
Nine
more states ready to require jobs for Medicaid enrollees. Last week, Kentucky became the first state to require
work for some Medicaid beneficiaries. The Trump administration approved a proposal from Kentucky that would require
Medicaid beneficiaries to work, volunteer or take classes as a condition of being enrolled in the program. But the
state is unlikely to be the last. Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah, and
Wisconsin have submitted their own proposals, though some will have to work with federal officials to make sure their
requests fit the guidelines laid out Thursday [1/11/2018] by the Trump administration. States have varying requests,
according to a Washington Examiner review of Medicaid waiver applications filed to CMS.
No, Medicaid
Work Requirements Aren't Racist or Cruel. When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced
that states could experiment with work requirements and volunteer community service as prerequisites for Medicaid
eligibility, the melodramatic response from the Democrats and their media allies was as predictable as it was
mendacious. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi summed up the position of her congressional accomplices by vehemently
denouncing the new CMS policy as "mean-spirited," "cynical," and "spiteful." And USA Today captured the gist of
the "news" coverage with a work of fiction titled, "Medicaid work requirements are a throwback to rejected racial stereotypes."
Kentucky
to add Medicaid work requirement; first state to follow Trump plan. Kentucky received the green light Friday [1/12/2018] to
require many of its Medicaid recipients to work in order to receive coverage. The Bluegrass State thus becomes the first state to
act on the Trump administration's unprecedented change that could affect millions of low-income people receiving benefits. Under
the new rule, adults age 19 to 64 must complete 80 hours of "community engagement" per month to keep their care. That
includes working a job, going to school, taking a job-training course or volunteering.
Food
Stamps Take Nosedive in States with Restored Work Requirements. Thanks to President Donald Trump, food stamps
won't be handed out as easily anymore. Now there are work requirements being put into play in order to receive
welfare. Under the Obama administration, less and less people worked while more and more landed on the list of food
stamp recipients. However, now that there are new rules to the game, not so many people want to play.
Food
stamp rolls plummet in states that restore work requirements. After the food stamp rolls swelled for years
under the Obama administration, fresh figures show a dramatic reduction in states that recently have moved to restore work
requirements. States were allowed to waive those rules for able-bodied adults thanks to the 2009 economic stimulus.
As the rules loosened and the economy sputtered out of the recession, food stamp enrollment soared to record levels —
peaking at nearly 48 million nationwide in 2013. But while that number has dipped gradually in recent years, some
states have moved aggressively to push recipients who can work back into the job market and, in due time, off the program.
Proposed Law Would Require
Food Stamp Recipients to Show Proof of Job Search. A Louisiana congressman introduced legislation that would strengthen work requirements
for recipients of food stamps. "By putting certain perimeters or requirements on the program where you have to actually do job searches and you
have to go do interviews and you have to participate in certain job training activities, it is migrating people from dependence to the workforce and
that is a win for everyone," Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., told The Daily Signal in an interview.
Steep
Decline In Food Stamps In Georgia After Work Mandate Enforced. Georgia sees a steep decline in the number of
participants receiving food stamps. The state recently reported a 62 percent drop in "snap" payments for residents
living in 21 counties last month. This came after a 2016 work mandate became enforced in those counties at the
beginning of April.
13 Alabama
counties saw 85 percent drop in food stamp participation after work requirements restarted. Thirteen previously
exempted Alabama counties saw an 85 percent drop in food stamp participation after work requirements were put in place on
Jan. 1, according to the Alabama Department of Human Resources. The counties [...] had been exempt from a change that
limited able-bodied adults without dependents to three months of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits within a
three-year time frame unless they were working or participating in an approved training program.
85%
drop in food stamp recipients in AL counties where work requirement restarted. The Alabama Department of Human
Resources says 13 counties that reinitiated a work requirement for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),
formerly known as the food stamp program, saw an 85% drop in recipients. The counties had been exempt from the work
requirement due to high levels of unemployment. But with the economy recovering, the state of Alabama restarted the
work requirement on January 1 this year, which resulted in the massive drop in SNAP participants.
Trump
budget saves taxpayer money by weeding out welfare freeloaders. Office of Management and Budget director Mick
Mulvaney delivered a tough message on Tuesday [5/23/2017] as he explained the cornerstone of the Trump administration's
budget blueprint for fiscal year 2018; ween capable, low income Americans off of welfare programs and put them back to work.
Wisconsin's
attempt to tie food to jobs pays off. Wisconsin has announced that significant reforms of its statewide food
benefits program have led to nearly 15,000 gaining meaningful employment, joining a national trend toward putting more food
stamp recipients to work. Republican Gov. Scott Walker led a campaign to require able-bodied adults without
dependents who participate in FoodShare, the state's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to work at least 80 hours
a month or risk limits to their benefits beginning in April 2015.
Georgia
Tells Able-Bodied Food Stamp Recipients to Work for 'Greater Good'. Thousands of Georgia residents who depend
on food stamps are losing their benefits because they have failed to meet the state's new requirements that force the
able-bodied without children to find jobs. These new work requirements have been rolled out in phases for the past
year. The latest round impacted approximately 12,000 people in 21 counties. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
reported more than half of them, or 7,251, were dropped from the food stamp program because they were not working.
House
Bill Would Strengthen Welfare Work Requirement. Rep. Jim Jordan introduced a bill Thursday [5/26/2016] that
would reform food stamps. "Welfare programs are meant to be a temporary safety net, but they have become a permanent way
of life for millions of Americans," Jordan, R-Ohio, said in a statement. "Instead of giving impoverished families and
individuals a helping hand, the current system penalizes positive steps toward self-sufficiency." According to a press
release from Jordan's office, H.R. 5360, the Welfare Reform and Upward Mobility Act, is based on Maine's successful reforms
and the welfare reforms of 1996. The bill would, among other things, implement stricter work requirements for "able-bodied"
adults without dependents receiving assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. It would
also help recipients with employment training and job searches to give recipients the tools needed to overcome poverty.
Is
Personal Responsibility Obsolete? Among the many disturbing signs of our times are conservatives and
libertarians of high intelligence and high principles who are advocating government programs that relieve people of the
necessity of working to provide their own livelihoods. Generations ago, both religious people and socialists were
agreed on the proposition that "he who does not work, neither shall he eat." Both would come to the aid of those unable
to work. But the idea that people who simply choose not to work should be supported by money taken from those who are
working was rejected across the ideological spectrum.
The
Questions Liberals Never Have to Answer. [Question #4] Does it matter if anti-poverty policies work? If
programs don't work, shouldn't they be abandoned? Is it good for people to be on welfare and food stamps long-term?
Does it matter that the number of people on disability is so historically high that a significant percentage of the people receiving
it almost have to be doing so fraudulently? Are we fulfilling our responsibility to the taxpayers to make sure their money is
used to temporarily help people who really need it?
Why
More States Are Requiring Work Requirements for Food Stamps. Newspaper headlines have been bemoaning that more
states will now have to require adults on food stamps — who are able-bodied and without dependents — to
work. Since 2009, nearly all states have been able to waive the modest food stamp work requirement. But these
waivers have gradually been expiring, and as of April 1, more states are once again required to enforce the modest food
stamp work requirement. The food stamps program is one of the largest government means-tested welfare programs. [...]
The most rapid growth was among able-bodied adults without dependents, which jumped from just under 2 million in 2008
to 4.7 million in 2014.
The
controversial reason tens of thousands of people just lost their food stamps. As many as 1 million Americans
will stop receiving food stamps this year, the consequence of a controversial work mandate that took effect this week in 21 states
as the economy improves. The revival of the mandate, which was hotly debated when adopted in the 1990s, is reigniting a discussion
among policymakers and advocates for the poor about the fairness and wisdom of the social safety net in the new U.S. economy.
The requirement, which generally stipulates that participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) who do not have
children or a disability must find a job within three months of receiving the benefit and work an average of 20 hours a week, was
suspended in most states following the mortgage crisis amid widespread unemployment. Now, as jobs have returned, the work mandate was
automatically reinstated in many states at the beginning of this year, and the three-month allowance for finding a job ended April 1.
States
moving to restore work requirements for food stamp recipients. States are moving to once again require able-bodied adults to
put in work hours in exchange for food stamps, after the requirements largely were suspended by the Obama administration. The slow-moving
reversal follows the administration pulling back on Clinton-era changes that required recipients to work for government welfare benefits.
Signing the reform bill in 1996 alongside then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, then-President Bill Clinton said the goal was to make welfare "a second
chance, not a way of life." But during the last recession, President Obama allowed states to suspend a requirement that able-bodied adults
without children work at least 20 hours per week or participate in a training program to receive benefits for more than three months.
Welfare System Is 'Anti-Work,' Researchers
Say. The war on poverty is a war on work, the authors of a new book that criticizes the nation's welfare system assert.
Phil Harvey, chief sponsor of the DKT Liberty Project, and Lisa Conyers, a policy analyst for the project, conducted a nationwide study of
anti-poverty programs for their book, "The Human Cost of Welfare: How the System Hurts the People It's Supposed to Help." "The present
system is anti-work. It's almost a war on work. And that's insane; at the very, very least, we ought to be helping people get out
of the system and into paid employment," Harvey said Monday as the authors discussed the results of their study at the Cato Institute, a
libertarian think tank. They said their research, illustrated by numerous interviews with welfare recipients, led them to conclude
that the current benefits structure traps many enrollees in the very poverty they wish to escape.
Maine
Ends Dependence On Food Stamps: How Did It Happen? The number of childless, able-bodied adult food stamp recipients in a New England
state fell by 80% over the course of a few months. This didn't require magic, just common sense. From December 2014 to March 2015, the
caseload of able-bodied Maine adults with no dependents crashed from 13,332 recipients to 2,678, says the Heritage Foundation. This is a
remarkable change and needs to be repeated in government programs across the country. How Maine achieved this is no mystery. Gov.
Paul LePage simply established work requirements for food stamp recipients who have no dependents and are able enough to be employed. They
must, write Heritage policy analysts Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield, "take a job" — just 20 hours a week —
"participate in training, or perform community service" for a mere 24 hours a week. Recipients who do none of those are stripped
of their food stamp benefits after three months.
Maine
Required Childless Adults to Work to Get Food Stamps. Here's What Happened. One trillion dollars —
that's how much the government spent last year on means-tested welfare aid, providing cash, food, housing, medical care, and
social services to poor and low-income individuals. The food stamp program is the nation's second largest welfare program.
The number of food stamp recipients has risen dramatically, from 17.2 million in 2000 to 45.8 million in 2015. Costs have
soared over the same period, from $20.7 billion in 2000 to $83.1 billion in 2014. The most rapid growth in the food stamp
caseload in recent years has been among able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs). These are work-capable adult recipients
between the ages of 18 and 49 who do not have children or other dependents to support.
North Carolina Welfare Leeches Just Got Some Devastating News.
On Jan. 1, the Department of Agriculture eliminated an exemption that had allowed North Carolina to ignore "a federal requirement that
able-bodied adults without children work or volunteer at least 20 hours a week to receive benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program, or SNAP," reported Wake County news station WRAL. Specifically, it eliminated the exemption for 23 counties,
including my county of Wake. The exemption will remain in place for the state's 77 other counties until July 1.
This means that about 59,000 men and women who currently receive food stamps in N.C. will now need to make an effort to either work or
volunteer, lest they lose their access to free food.
Britain's
job-training regimen provides a remedy for welfare addiction. Since his party's impressive election victory in May, Prime Minister
David Cameron is moving quickly to fulfill his campaign promise to ensure welfare benefits are no longer a way of life for many of his fellow
citizens. Instead of open-ended benefits for the unemployed, the government, beginning in April 2017, will require young people between
18 and 21 who don't have jobs but are collecting welfare, to attend three-week "boot camps" to prepare them for work in a rapidly
improving economy. If they refuse, they will be denied benefits if they are unemployed for six months.
The Editor says...
This idea could never be implemented in this country, with the current crop of spineless politicians. As soon as a
work-or-starve law was implemented, the press would embark on a week-long series of sob stories featuring the saddest cases
they can find — little old ladies who can't make ends meet any more because their welfare checks are about to stop.
By the end of that week, the Republicans would give up and reinstate everybody's handouts.
Foodstamps
for able-bodied adults down 80% in Maine following minimal work requirement. Foodstamp
enrollment by able bodied childless adults in Maine (which has a conservative Republican governor)
is down 80% after imposing a very modest requirement that recipients work at least 6 hours a week in
a volunteer program. Of course, the media portrays this as an exercise in cruelty. [...] Let's
face it, 80% of the able bodied childless adults in Maine on Foodstamps didn't need it.
Truly hungry people would eagerly volunteer six hours a week for free food.
Food
Stamps Have Exploded Once Work Requirements Were Gutted. Started in the 1970s, the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has just become another vehicle for the political
left to increase dependency and further their agenda. In all, there are 48 million Americans on
food stamps, up from 17 million since 2000. Additionally, millions more are being added to their
states' respective food stamp rolls than they are finding full-time work; for every one person who found a
job, two people are given SNAP benefits. In terms of cost, we were spending $17 billion on food
stamps. It's now ballooned to an $80 billion program.
Foodstamps down 80% in Maine following 6 hr/week work
requirement. Foodstamp enrollment in Maine (which has a conservative Republican
governor) among able bodied single adults is down 80% after imposing a very modest requirement that
recipients work at least 6 hours a week in a volunteer program. Of course, the media
portrays this as an exercise in cruelty. [...] The Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program is intended
to be a supplemental food pantry, but a growing number of clients here and at pantries around the
state have little else to rely on because of a change in state policy this year. These are
the leeches who don't want to even work 6 hours a week for their check.
Oh no. Not that!
Bills Would Require Michiganders To Work For Welfare,
Pass Drug Test. A bill has passed in the Michigan Senate that would require those receiving public assistance to do some "volunteer" work.
Another bill, which passed the House Commerce Committee, requires drug testing, revoking benefits for welfare recipients who refuse the test or who test positive.
Obama's Work to Welfare Program. With the economy
stuck in the doldrums, the unemployment rate mired in the mid 7% range and the U-6 rate, which measures those out of work along with those who have
given up or who are working part time in lieu of full time work, lounging in the 14% range one has to wonder why there is no popular outcry
to throw the bums out. The answer would seem to be that many are discovering not working is more lucrative than their options in the workforce.
Many disability
recipients admit they could work. Recipients of federal disability checks often admit that they are capable of working but
cannot or will not find a job, that those closest to them tell them they should be working, and that working to get off the disability
rolls is not among their goals. More baffling, most have never received significant medical treatment and not seen a doctor about
their condition in the last year, even though medical problems are the official reason they don't work.
The Welfare Debate We're Not Having: It
turns out — apparently to the surprise of many on the left — that working for a living is better than
subsisting as a parasite on government handouts.
Many recipients of welfare benefits are too lazy to work
Others are criminals intent on defrauding the taxpayers.
When their unemployment benefits run out, freeloaders by the thousands are switching over to disability benefits. Apparently
it isn't difficult to claim some sort of disability, and the pencil-pushing bureaucrats are happy to sign up everyone who applies.
Aside from disability claims, there is very little motivation to work when the "safety net" is so comfortable.
Four
million at risk of abandoning work permanently as benefits surge. Nearly four million
people are at risk of abandoning work permanently amid a post-lockdown surge in benefits paid to
claimants who do not have to find a job. Policy in Practice warned there had been a "marked"
post-pandemic shift in welfare that was moving people away from seeking employment, with
3.9 million now receiving out-of-work benefits without having to even look for a
job — twice as many as the number of claimants who must try to find work. Its
analysis of Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) data showed this was the highest since at least
2015 and up from just over three million in 2020. The social policy and data analytics
company added that this was in stark contrast with a big drop in the number of welfare claimants
whose benefits are tied to work search.
Food
stamps: Texas SNAP payments for October worth up to $1,691 to be sent in 12
days. Texas's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will begin its October
payments, worth up to $1,691, in 12 days. SNAP payment amounts in Texas are based on the
household size of recipients — single households receive $281, and eight-member
households receive $1,691, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
Families larger than eight are granted an extra $211 for every additional member. Eligibility
is determined by household income. To qualify, a single-person household cannot make more
than $1,869 per month, and a five-person household cannot make more than $4,465 per month.
The Editor says...
In other words, the program subsidizes reproduction and punishes success.
Democrats —
the party of freeloaders. The Democratic Party, long known as the party for working
people, is now for freeloaders. Democrats want taxpayers to support people who refuse to get
off the couch and get a job. That's the major reason Democrats and Republicans in Washington
were locked in a stalemate for weeks over hiking the debt ceiling. The biggest sticking point
was whether people should be allowed to collect government assistance indefinitely to finance their
nonworking lifestyle. For everyone who toils for a living, the idea of paying taxes to
support healthy people who won't work feels like a slap in the face.
Hey,
Uncle Sam: Stop Paying People for Not Working. A policy question these days that has
befuddled federal lawmakers is why so many millions of people have not returned to the workplace in
the post-COVID-19 era. The labor force participation rate among employable adults is near a
record low today. There are at least 2 million to 4 million employable adults who could and
should be working but aren't. Very few people with even minimal skills can credibly say they
can't find a job. Employers report some 10 million job openings. Small business owners
say their biggest problem is finding competent workers. There are many explanations for why
so many people aren't working — fear of COVID-19, the skills mismatch, more people
taking early retirement, and so on. But a major factor is that the federal government is back
to doing what it did in the 1970s and 1980s. The welfare state today is paying people
not to work — even a single hour.
New
York is paying BLM rioters over $6M. It is widely believed and statistically
demonstrated that New Yorkers live in a generous welfare state. Full benefits in New York can
garner a welfare recipient the pre-tax amount of $43,700 annually, or an hourly rate of $21.01. At
the same time, a Floridian in similar circumstances would receive $12,600, or $6.06 per hour.
If you think that benefits in the sums available to New Yorkers are not a disincentive to being
employed, you are delusional. The citizens who do get up each day and go to work are paying
for those welfare benefits through their exorbitant tax bills. They find those figures
laughable but not at all humorous. Is it any wonder that so many New Yorkers, at least those
willing to work, are heading south to the Sunshine State? The Floridian sense of humor does
not include laughing at the poor guy forced to support freeloaders.
Workarounds
to working. [Scroll down] Living off of family money, unemployment
insurance, disability insurance, government grants, friends, subsidized homelessness, becoming a
perpetual student, and/or working off the books all come together to allow an unprecedented number
of people to fail to contribute to the continuing success and financing of our country. There
is a monthly government statistic called U-6 and another metric called Civilian Labor Force
Participation Rate. These two stats, added to the official Unemployment rate, reveal another
estimated 12 million unemployed or underemployed individuals over and above the official
stats. Another important metric is people who could work but choose not to do so.
Yes, the government keeps that number as well. When you combine all these numbers, you
approach 100 million people who don't work for a variety of reasons. That number has
risen by about 35 million in the last ten years.
The
welfare state is out of control, new study shows. A massive labor shortage continues to hamstring the
economy, with millions more empty jobs than unemployed job-seekers. All the while, millions of people remain on
the sidelines, with the labor force participation rate significantly below the pre-pandemic norm. Why are so many
potential workers sitting idle while jobs need to be filled? Well, the astoundingly bloated nature of America's
welfare state offers one explanation, according to a new study. Conservative economists Stephen Moore, E.J. Antoni,
and Casey Mulligan of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity analyzed what a typical four-person family, with two
nonworking adults, could receive in welfare benefits, including both unemployment and healthcare subsidies, across the
50 states. They found that in three states, Washington, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, this typical family can
earn the equivalent of more than $100,000 annually without working, thanks to various government programs.
Meanwhile, in 14 states the benefits are equivalent to an $80,000 annual salary or more.
The
Vanishing American Work Ethic. As a result of the pandemic, 'Now Hiring' signs proliferate in most restaurants,
grocery stores, and small businesses, but most go unanswered. Large blue-state cities, especially California, are
plagued with hordes of homeless encampments; a migration trend that started long before the pandemic. Thanks to
conservative media, we at least know these homeless dregs of society are attracted there by lax law enforcement, offers of
free stuff, and some are even paid by leftists who run these infested cities. The persistent unfilled job openings are
puzzling. Popular opinion blames the nationwide shortage of workers on the generous COVID unemployment and other
payments, but there is much more going on, according to a piece from Mauldin Economics.
The
5 Big Problems with Andrew Yang's $1000-a-Month Universal Basic Income Proposal. [#5] History has shown us over
and over again that the larger the pool of young men a nation has with no jobs, no real purpose in life, and nothing much to
do other than entertain themselves, the more degenerate, dangerous, violent and crime-ridden your society will be.
Unfit for Work: Disability
in America. In the past three decades, the number of Americans who are on disability has skyrocketed. The
rise has come even as medical advances have allowed many more people to remain on the job, and new laws have banned workplace
discrimination against the disabled. Every month, 14 million people now get a disability check from the
government. The federal government spends more money each year on cash payments for disabled former workers than it
spends on food stamps and welfare combined. Yet people relying on disability payments are often overlooked in
discussions of the social safety net. The vast majority of people on federal disability do not work. Yet
because they are not technically part of the labor force, they are not counted among the unemployed.
Guilty
plea in huge Social Security disability fraud case. Nothing quite brings out the genius in criminals like
schemes that look to bilk the American taxpayer. A lawyer in Tennessee signed a guilty plea in one of the biggest Social
Security disability fraud cases in history. Eric C. Conn acknowledged that he was the ringleader in a conspiracy
to defraud the federal government of hundreds of millions of dollars in disability benefits. Here's a crook who covered
all the bases.
Small
Businesses Lament There Are Too Few Mexicans in U.S., Not Too Many. In Dallas, the King of Texas Roofing Co.
says it has turned down $20 million worth of projects in the past two years because it doesn't have enough workers. In
the San Francisco Bay Area, Joe Hargrave is expanding his successful Tacolicious chain of restaurants, but says he is
building smaller ones due to "a massive shortage of restaurant workers." And in Florida, Steve Johnson, who harvests
oranges for the citrus industry, says, "Right now, if I had 80 guys, I could put every one of them to work."
The Editor says...
The problem is not that Mexicans are rare individuals who are uniquely qualified to do difficult jobs. The problem is
lower-class American citizens prefer to stay home and live on welfare (and "disability") benefits than show up for work.
Ex-NYPD
detective on $90G disability also draws salary as security boss, report says. An ex-NYPD detective receiving
$90,000-a-year in disability payments is also drawing a $50,000 salary as a U.S. Army security supervisor, The New York Daily
News reported on Sunday. Anthony Hernandez, 43, retired as a detective in January 2014, which is when he began receiving
disability checks, according to records reviewed by The Daily News. But Hernandez soon began working at the Brooklyn
military base in Fort Hamilton.
Ex-cop
with alleged 'back problems' reaps $90G from disability pension, works full-time as U.S. Army security boss. A
retired police detective earning a whopping $90,000-a-year in tax free NYPD disability payments is working full-time as a
security boss for the U.S. Army, the [New York] Daily News has learned. Anthony Hernandez, 43, of Staten Island,
retired as a detective from the NYPD in January 2014 and began receiving $7,443.62 a month in coveted disability payments
from the city, records show. Within a few months, the former general manager of the NYPD's football team then began working
as a security official at the sprawling Brooklyn military base in Fort Hamilton, making about $50,000 a year, records show.
The
[Difficulty] of Applying for Government Benefits. Massive budget cuts and hiring freezes in the last few years have
turned the Social Security Administration into one of the most understaffed and overburdened agencies in the federal
government. As of June, it had a backlog of more than 1 million unresolved disability claims, the highest in the
agency's history. The average wait time to get one of these claims adjudicated is more than a year.
The Editor says...
I don't feel sorry for those who find it difficult to pick my pocket. If it is difficult to get disability payments started,
maybe that's because there are tens of thousands of others applying for disability payments, while their only disability is unmitigated
laziness. The government has made it too easy to get on the gravy train.
Trump
Wins Big in Disability Country. The $150 billion federal disability program is a mess. It almost went
broke (Congress had to give it an emergency infusion). It discourages employment and can be gamed. But woe to the
office-seeker who tries to fix it. No one understands this better than Donald Trump, who has defied Republican
orthodoxy and courted Republican voters by opposing changes to entitlement benefits, which include the federal disability
program that is part of Social Security and provides income to 11 million Americans. The portion of the working-age
population receiving benefits is 4.8 percent, up from 2.8 percent in 1994. Applications are growing again, after leveling
off last year. Recipients are mostly non-college-educated, white, blue collar and middle-aged. Trump voters, in other words.
In 1 in 5 Families in the
U.S., No One Works. There were one in five families in the United States in 2015, or 19.7 percent, in which no
one in the family worked, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Families are classified either
as married-couple families or as families maintained by women or men without spouses present," explains the bureau.
"Families include those without children as well as those with children under age 18." There were 81,410,000 families in
the United States in 2015. Of those, there were 16,060,000 families in which no member was employed, or 19.7 percent of the
total. The number has remained relatively steady since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking this data since 1995.
$11 Billion in Excess Disability Payments
Found by GAO. Congress is bailing out the financially troubled Social Security Disability Insurance program as part of a two-year
bipartisan budget deal that received final approval on Friday [10/30/2015]. The costly program — which provides $143 billion
annually to 11 million people unable to work because of significant illness or impairment — has undergone intense scrutiny by
lawmakers and the Government Accountability Office. It will undergo substantial reforms in the coming months in order to reduce wasteful
spending and fraud that have jeopardized the program's financial stability.
Seattle
sees fallout from $15 minimum wage, as other cities follow suit. Seattle's $15 minimum
wage law is supposed to lift workers out of poverty and move them off public assistance. But
there may be a hitch in the plan. Evidence is surfacing that some workers are asking their bosses for
fewer hours as their wages rise — in a bid to keep overall income down so they don't lose public subsidies for
things like food, child care and rent. Full Life Care, a home nursing nonprofit, told KIRO-TV in Seattle
that several workers want to work less.
On
The Brink Of Bankruptcy, Federal Disability Program Wastes Billions. A government audit finds that the Social
Security Disability Insurance program paid out $16.8 billion in disability benefits over the past decade to about four
million people who either were working, made too much money, were in prison, were dead, weren't eligible or were no longer
physically or mentally disabled. [...] Between 2003 and 2014, SSDI rolls climbed 44% — even though the Census
Bureau reports that the number of actual working-age disabled has been climbing at a far lower rate.
Report:
Social Security Overpaid Nearly Half on Disability. Social Security overpaid nearly
half the people receiving disability benefits over the past decade, according to a government
watchdog, raising questions about the management of the cash-strapped program.
SSA Issued
$16.8 Billion Disability Overpayments. The Social Security Administration (SSA) made
nearly $17 billion in disability overpayments in the last decade, according to an audit by the
Office of Inspector General (OIG). Some beneficiaries were able to receive disability benefits
for 10 years, even though they were ineligible. The OIG based its estimate of $16.8 billion
overpayments on a sample of more than 1,500 Americans who received benefits since 2003, finding nearly
half were overpaid. "Our review of 1,532 beneficiaries in current pay status as of October 2003
found that over a 10-year period (from October 2003 through February 2014), SSA assessed overpayments
for 44.5 percent of sampled beneficiaries," the audit said.
Social
Security overpaid nearly half on disability, watchdog says. In all, Social Security overpaid
beneficiaries by nearly $17 billion, according to a 10-year study by the agency's inspector general.
The
Futility of Jobs Programs. Government work-related programs are designed to teach
specific skills, not impart character traits such as showing up when you'd rather stay home. How do
you transform a youngster who has drifted through life with minimal self-control to one who without
protest follows all instructions and otherwise performs as a valued employee?
Extending Unemployment
Benefits Doesn't Work. Congress passed the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act of
2008. [This] law dramatically extended the duration of unemployment benefits, from (typically)
26 weeks to as much as 39 weeks. Democrats controlled both houses of Congress in 2008.
Then came the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, Dear Leader Barack Hussein Obama's famous
"stimulus bill," that further extended the duration of unemployment benefits, so that by the end of 2013 the
typical duration of unemployment benefits was 99 weeks. Further, the ARRA expanded eligibility for
unemployment benefits to part-time workers, and exempted the first $2,400 of unemployment benefits from
taxation. Economists criticized these extensions and expansions, saying that they encouraged people
to remain unemployed, to stay out of the labor force.
The Shirking Man's
Party. Rand Paul accuses most recipients of Social Security disability payments of
"gaming the system" and calls them "malingerers." "What I tell people is, if you look like me and
you hop out of your truck, you shouldn't be getting a disability check," the Kentucky senator told
New Hampshire voters earlier this week. "You know, over half the people on disability are either
anxious or their back hurts. Join the club. Who doesn't get up a little anxious for work
every day and their back hurts? Everybody over 40 has a back pain."
Generous
L.A. city policy rewards workers who take long injury leaves. Los Angeles Police
Department clerk Demeturius Matthews took a full year off for an on-the-job injury after she banged
her elbow into a metal filing cabinet. She didn't break any bones, city records show, but a
chiropractor declared her temporarily disabled. She took a second year off after smacking her knee
into her desk. A third yearlong leave began after she said she felt pain between her shoulder blades
while reaching for her phone. Matthews collected $170,000 in salary while on those leaves, and
increased her take-home pay by thousands of dollars during the time off under an unusually generous
Los Angeles city leave policy for civilian workers.
21
Facts That Prove Government Dependency is Out of Control. [#10] Right now, more than
70 million Americans are enrolled in Medicaid. [#11] The number of Americans enrolled in the
Social Security disability program now exceeds the entire population of the state of Virginia.
[#12] If the number of Americans on Social Security disability were gathered into a separate state,
it would be the 8th largest state in the entire country. [#13] In 1968, there were 51 full-time
workers for every American on disability. Today, there are just 13 full-time workers for every
American on disability.
Suit
Filed to Halt Work Requirements for Food Stamp Recipients in New Mexico. On October 27,
the New Mexico Center for Law and Poverty, the Southwest Organizing Project, and a number of food stamp
recipients filed suit to halt work requirements for food stamp recipients which are set to go into effect
in November. The Associated Press reports the changes would require "some childless adults [to] work
in order to receive food stamps." Other recipients would have to "search for a job or participate in
community service or job training."
This item comes from Al Jazeera. BYO grain of salt.
Maine residents
to work for food stamps, governor says. Maine's Republican governor on Wednesday [7/23/2014]
launched a push to make more "able-bodied" people work for their food stamps. "People who are in
need deserve a hand up, but we should not be giving able-bodied individuals a handout," said Gov.
Paul R. LePage. [...] About 12,000 of the state's residents receiving $15 million annually in food
stamps are considered to be able-bodied by Maine's Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS),
which administers the aid. That means that they are between the ages of 18 and 49, have no
dependents and are not pregnant or disabled.
Disability
Beneficiaries Top 11 Million for First Time. The total number of disability beneficiaries in the United States topped
11 million for the first time last month, increasing from 10,996,447 in April to a record 11,004,507 in May, according to new
data released by the Social Security Administration.
11
Million On Disability: Why Are Rolls Rising So Fast? More than 5.2 million workers have enrolled since
President Obama took office, and enrollment is climbing faster under Obama than at any other time in the program's history.
An average 81,000 workers joined the Social Security disability program each month during Obama's years. Under
President Bush, monthly enrollment averaged 66,000, and the overall average since 1975 is 52,000. While there is
debate about the exact causes of the swelling ranks of workers on disability, it's clear that the sluggish economic
recovery under Obama played an important role.
1
in 6 American Men Between Ages 25-54 Are Not Working. "There are currently 61.1 million American
men in their prime working years, age 25-54. A staggering 1 in 8 such men are not in the labor force
at all, meaning they are neither working nor looking for work. This is an all-time high dating back to
when records were first kept in 1955. [...]"
Nearly
half of unemployed not looking for work, poll finds. Some 47% of unemployed Americans
say they've given up on looking for work, according to a poll commissioned by staffing firm Express
Employment Professionals. More than half say looking for work has been more difficult than
expected; only 2 in 10 currently receive unemployment benefits.
10,996,447:
Disability Beneficiaries Hit New Record. The t