Welfare - Granite Grok

Welfare

“It is one thing to have free immigration to jobs. It is another thing to have free immigration to welfare. And you cannot have both…We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes non-work.”  Milton Friedman

Welfare

Welfare. The word used to be a pejorative. Having grown up in an upper middle class family, some will deign it easy for me, perhaps even elitist, to write this blog. Some will call me a racist or a bigot or insensitive or greedy.  So be it. I do not care a fig. I make no apologies for it.  Milton Friedman never argued morality in society. It was Milton Friedman who once quipped, “Society doesn’t have values. People have values.” 

I recall Eddie Murphy  gyrating on stage, gleefully singing, ” I got some ice cream, you ain’t got none…cuz you on welfare.” 

Whispers in school about the kids with crummy clothes and smelled like sour milk: “psst…that kid is on welfare…that kid is a state child.” There was a time when one was a social pariah for being hooked up to the government. Bologna was  referred to as, “welfare steaks,” Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches were referred to as “Serf burgers.” “Gimme-Girls,” and,  “Lay-Abouts,”  and, “Welfare Queens,” were just a few terms that graced our lexicon – terms used when the PC Police wasn’t spying and shaming society. It was not positive to be on welfare. Society used to rest of the value of making ones own way in life and not sucking off fellow citizens.

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Today, people simply do not care. We see folks living in Public Housing driving Cadillac Escalades, sporting expensive cell phones and women sporting sculptured nails with a $50 per week maintenance cost. In fact, we see it flaunted openly. While the rest of the unwashed toil and struggle, we hear the Kool-Aid Slurpers hues and cries for increased taxation in furtherance of these very programs…or, “What about Corporate Welfare?” One of the more popular deflections popularly thrown out there. I can hear it now, Class warfare!” Yet, mentioning the wealth and lifestyle of CEO’s in an accusatory fashion isn’t.

Recently, The Center For Immigration Studies released a Study: Welfare Use by Immigrant and Native Households by Steven A. Carmarotta, Director of Research.    This study found…
  • Welfare
    Food Stamp President

    In 2012, 51 percent of households headed by an immigrant (legal or illegal) reported that they used at least one welfare program during the year, compared to 30 percent of native households. Welfare in this study includes Medicaid and cash, food, and housing programs.

  • Welfare use is high for both new arrivals and well-established immigrants. Of households headed by immigrants who have been in the country for more than two decades, 48 percent access welfare.
  • No single program explains immigrants’ higher overall welfare use. For example, not counting subsidized school lunch, welfare use is still 46 percent for immigrants and 28 percent for natives. Not counting Medicaid, welfare use is 44 percent for immigrants and 26 percent for natives.
  • Immigrant households have much higher use of food programs (40 percent vs. 22 Welfarepercent for natives) and Medicaid (42 percent vs. 23 percent). Immigrant use of cash programs is somewhat higher than natives (12 percent vs. 10 percent) and use of housing programs is similar to natives.
  • Welfare use varies among immigrant groups. Households headed by immigrants from Central America and Mexico (73 percent), the Caribbean (51 percent), and Africa (48 percent) have the highest overall welfare use. Those from East Asia (32 percent), Europe (26 percent), and South Asia (17 percent) have the lowest.
  • Many immigrants struggle to support their children, and a large share of welfare is received on behalf of U.S.-born children. However, even immigrant households without children have significantly higher welfare use than native households without children — 30 percent vs. 20 percent.
  • WelfareThe welfare system is designed to help low-income workers, especially those with children, and this describes many immigrant households. In 2012, 51 percent of immigrant households with one or more workers accessed one or more welfare programs, as did 28 percent of working native households.
  • The large share of immigrants with low levels of education and resulting low incomes partly explains their high use rates. In 2012, 76 percent of households headed by an immigrant who had not graduated high school used one or more welfare programs, as did 63 percent of households headed by an immigrant with only a high school education.

Download your own copy of the study Right Here.

During the 2012 primary debates, Newt Gingrich referred to President Obama as the “Food Stamp President.” Liberals and lefties caterwauled and excoriated Gingrich over the characterization, calling it hateful hyperbole. We already understand that liberals deflect from the truth with their usual nit-wit cries of bigotry and hatred.

The late English Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said, “The problem with socialism is that eventually, you run out of other people’s money.” We now live in a nation with open borders where people can cross the border or overstay their Visas, have kids (anchor babies) and live off the public dole that we taxpayers fund.  After the liberals run out of steam or pass out from all the name-calling they can muster, the question still remains, What happens when we run out of other people’s money?

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