Articles tagged as

Welfare

SUPPORT LITERACY

“I know a lot of people think I’m dumb. Well, at least I ain’t no educated fool.”  ~Leon Spinks  Literacy is the vital to individual success in our modern world. The ability to read, write, and speak English enables people to get jobs, participate in children’s education, maintain family health, and participate in our society.  … Read more

Tin-Eared Bureaucrats

“Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.” ~Laurence J. Peter

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Barbara Seebart, New Hampshire State Refugee Coordinator didn’t appear to grasp Mayor Ted Gatsas’ assertions that the City of Manchester is not prepared to absorb another 300 refugees. The Board of Mayor and Alderman voted in favor of a moratorium this month given the city’s current financial situation.

Seebart, told the mayor she would pass along his concerns to the hacks in Washington DC, but then ended her response to Gatsas with this little gem: “I look forward to our continued collaboration in assuring refugees are successfully resettled in Manchester.”  As reported in today’s edition of the New Hampshire Union Leader.

Gatsas promptly responded to Seebart asserting, “I continue to question how success is measured with regards to resettlement by both yourself and the International Institute of New Hampshire; to date that question has yet to be sufficiently answered.”

 On July 7, the Union Leader reported that Seebart expressed concerns about scarce case management after refugees have been in the Queen city 6-9 months, as well as concerns with the economy and potential welfare law changes. Yet her above statement seems to indicate a tin ear.

On July 10 International Institute of New England Board Chairman William Gillett, in the Union Leader argued against a moratorium stating, “To suggest that refugees resettling in Manchester “are going to suffer because there are not enough resources for them” ignores completely the conditions and lives that the refugees have fled…” Gillett further arrogantly opines, “Any lack of adequate resources is a failure of will, not a failure of ability.” Another tin ear.

The city has cut back on many services; The city has laid off workers; and, the tax payers are facing another tax increase.  Gillett’s organization is not shy about spending the tax payers dollars, either. Gillett points out that, “A significant amount of federal money flows in to Manchester to support refugee resettlement. These funds target refugee employment assistance, health care, English language and citizenship classes and, specifically, the educational needs of refugee children in the Manchester schools.  organization…” What he wants us to believe is that such federal funds are sufficient to do all that he says they are intended to do. Not true. And Gillet’s own organization’s report reflects that where IINH states, “

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Florida Adopts Drug Testing For Recipients Of Public Assistance

“One of the consequences of such notions as “entitlements” is that people who have contributed nothing to society feel that society owes them something, apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their presence.”~Thomas Sowell

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Florida is the first state to pass a law requiring those receiving state benefits to submit to drug testing. Florida Governor Rick Scott told CNN that the law was passed to provide personal accountability of those who would receive public assistance. Governor Scott believes that taxpayers should not be subsidizing the illegal drug use of those who are on the public dole. Under this law, those seeking to receive aid would be responsible to bear the up-front cost for drug testing, but the law provides for reimbursement.

And as predictably as could be anticipated, the rank-and-file liberal establishment lined right up to fight and advocate for status quo unaccountability. The perjuring impeached former Federal Judge and current State Representative Alcee Hastings made a whole bunch of noise about this bill being, “downright unconstitutional.” There is somebody we should listen to.  

The ACLU does what it usually does and filed a suit to block the law. Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida told CNN, “What (the Governor) is doing is giving ugly legitimacy to an unfortunate stereotype that has been in this country for a couple of decades – that all welfare recipients are a bunch of drug abusers,” pure demagoguery…But okay…let us look at what Howie confabulates.

It is a fair statement to say that not all people on welfare use illegal drugs. Fact is, we don’t really know how many people on welfare use drugs. Nobody wants to talk about it for obvious political reasons. However, lets take a look at what the National Poverty Center says about drug use:

“Citing (April 2004) estimates of the extent of substance abuse among welfare recipients, the authors suggest that policymakers and analysts have likely overstated the contribution of substance dependence to welfare receipt. The authors note that while substance use, abuse, and dependence are barriers to self-sufficiency, so are poor education, lack of transportation, physical and mental health problems, and other difficulties that are more common than substance dependence among welfare recipients. The authors stress the need for comprehensive services to address the multiple barriers faced by the most disadvantaged welfare recipients.”

NPC steers clear of making any concrete determination by simply directing attention away from drug use, to the whole host of other problems endemic in the welfare community. Their underlying thesis is to modestly acknowledge drug use but redirect the focus away from it and advocate for a more broader expansion on services. In other words, “Taxpayers, don’t ask us for details, you simply must pay more…”

The NPC has a graphic on their website that would suggest only 21% of welfare recipients use illegal drugs. Lets accept that at face value for the sake of discussion. In the Granite state roughly 53,000 households or 112,000  people use food stamps. That is roughly 1% of the total state population. According to the Henry Kaiser Family foundation, New Hampshire’s per capita food stamp benefit is $121.21. That is $13,575,520. So according to the National poverty center, the Granite State pays a public benefit in the amount of $2,850,859 to people who use illegal drugs. And with our liberal friends that is just aye-okay.

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Your Tax Dollars Hard At Work!

“It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.” ~Edmund Burke And when older people are yelling, “Don’t cut my Social Security!” Do you think they know about this community in Tacoma Washington? SO here you have it….Obama pimping the old people to keep … Read more

The Magic Green Hat

The other day I needed to go to the emergency room.  Not wanting to sit there for 4 hours, I put on my  MAGIC GREEN HAT.  When I went into the E.R., I noticed that 3/4 of the people got up and left. I guess they decided that they weren’t that sick after all.  Cut … Read more

The Myopic Lament Of Cut Budgets

?Contemporarily, governments all over America, be they national, state, local or municipal, have come to recognize that spending is outpacing revenue. The 2010 elections were a message that we as a nation need to become more fiscally responsible and stop spending ourselves into bankruptcy. Consequently, budgets are being slashed, expenses trimmed and austere measures are … Read more

Drug testing for food stamp recipients – a quick observation

HB 484 is titled "Food Stamp Program Eligibility; Random Drug Testing Required".  Kevin Landrigan (Telegraph) did a write up of the pros / cons view; of course, Conservatives have the tack that recipients should not be doing drugs and that with testing, one can see the old Reagan mantra at work: Trust but verify. The … Read more

Welfare – providing the basics

I have no problem in providing a basic safety net.  I do, however, have a problem in defining "the basics" upward to include more and more and more: SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco has finished installing free Wi-Fi in its public housing facilities as part of a citywide housing improvement initiative. Mayor Gavin Newsom and … Read more

Need Assistance? Really? What about that word “Priorities”?

Sheesh.  Well, as a society, we’ve brought this upon ourselves.  In the guise of helping people, government spends more and more to do more and more for more and more people – it doesn’t seem to end.  The problem is, even with reams and reams of regulations and ‘strings’ attached, is it effective in keeping people from gaming the system?  Is Government doing what it can, what it should, to keep people from becoming dependent on those handouts?

Not if I read this story. And the picture below came with the story.  And when

I saw that, and combined it with the sub-story of this lady:

“We were already too late,” she said. “It’s like impossible (to get a ticket). It gets in the way of people who need it. … If we’re there at 3 a.m. and it’s already too late, what time are you supposed to go?”

Kelley said she was unemployed for a year before recently landing a job. But her bills have stacked up while she was unemployed, and she needs the assistance.

I went "huh?  You have got to be kidding me!".  Look, I know hardship.  I know what it is like to be laid off for quite some time and have had to look for quarters (when my kids were small) and other change so as to buy milk for them.  And I know what it is like to say "Christmas gifts or food?".  And yes, I have sold stuff to have the necessities – the "stuff" became superfluous. When things are tough, priorities start to be come sharper and sharper in the current reality.

Or should be. But it seems that as Government gets bigger and does more, those individual priorities seem to remain…

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Data Points – Welfare spending

From National Review Online: The District of Columbia was one of the few jurisdictions that chose to extend welfare benefits far beyond the Federal time limit of 5 years. DC residents on welfare > 5 years: 40% DC residents on welfare > 8 years : nearly 33% DC’s poorest ward family makeup: 66% are unmarried … Read more

Talk about redistribution of wealth? Seems like Obama talked “Truth to Dollars” to Joe the Plumber!

Obama famously quipped (a gaffe: a moment of real truth telling by a politician) that it was better when the wealth is spread around.  He wasn’t kidding.

Folks, this chart from ZeroHedge is absolutely stunning – the State (er, government) has now broken both the stigma and the moral hazard to "why NOT not work?".  At this point, why shouldn’t I just throw myself onto the kindly arms of the bureaucrats and make myself totally dependent upon the taxpayers (those schmucks that are still working, that is).  Just THINK of the blog posts I could churn out if I didn’t have to worry about a roof over my head and food on my table?

Sure, it would come with strings attached and hoops to jump through.  But hey, I’m reasonably intelligent – it shouldn’t take THAT long to fill out the forms.  I also remember the folks that had my State paying their bills for their kids at my Daycare center years ago.  Certainly, one the topics was always "where to get the free stuff" as the boyfriends were literally at home in the garage drinking beers.  Dependent on Government?  Yes they can!  Were they trying to work their way off it?  In many cases, I can tell you "no they weren’t"!

Why?  As you can see below, Government programs "trapped them" by setting incentives in such a way that it was in their best interest NOT to find work.

From the post:

In Entitlement America, The Head Of A Household Of Four Making Minimum Wage Has More Disposable Income Than A Family Making $60,000 A Year

My chart tells the story. It is pretty much self-explanatory.

As you read this, keep this in mind:

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Public Service Is About Trust

I’d just assume have a root canal without pain killer as suffer through an editorial by Carol Shea-Porter, but sometimes you have to take one for the team. So I have immersed myself in the last rights editorial of the soon to be former congresswoman from New Hampshire’s first district, which is ironically titled, ‘Public Service is about trust.’

Trust?

Before I proceed let me offer up a comment on Carol’s notion of trust.  In traditional progressive fashion the meaning of trust has had to have been tortured before admitting under duress and threat of death to its friends and family members, that Carol’s application of it’s meaning holds any relevance at all to the historical application.  In fact Carol’s willingness to even use the word in this context, nay–any context at all–in reference to what she refers to as her public service, is a public disservice to the word, the language, the people of the first district, and serves to cement the likelihood that she is the disconnected, ruling class political shill we suspect her to be, if not also clinically insane.

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Happy Thanksgiving eh?

In recognition of finding the Bahama’s, public service union employees all across the fruited plain, get a paid day off. I’m not sure we need to “explore” this any further to get to the nexus of thought on the why’s and what for’s in this decision making process.

Boom Baby! Milton Friedman Brings The Rain

I can’t thank Erik Erickson enough for posting this.   In two minutes Milton Friedman destroys Phil Donahue.  I don’t need to go on—let’s just enjoy it shall we?   Just look at Phil’s face. He’s beside his liberal self with nowhere to run. (updated)–I do want to point out, to Phil’s credit, that he is … Read more

New Hampshire Is Number 3!!!!

Number three of what?  How about number three for this.   Top 10 states ranked by local government public welfare employees per 100,000 residents New York                           256 Wisconsin                         249 New Hampshire              241 Ohio                                   228 Minnesota                        208 California                         189 Pennsylvania                  178 North Carolina                174 North Dakota                 164 New Jersey                     146     … Read more

The Past As The Present

  I picked this up from RedState who got it recently from the Chicago Tribune where it was apparently published back in 1934.  We are invited to read the list on the sign in the bottom left hand corner but there are plenty of interesting things to catch the eye. "It worked in Russia."  And … Read more

New Hampshire Needs To Go Into Rehab

“…state governments learn to rely to much on federal handouts as well. New Hampshire democrats just “balanced” the state budget with more debt and millions in federal money that’s not even there. So now they’ll have to get someone to put it back or their budget will not be “in balance,” like some crack whore begging for another hit.”

Results of Governmental Dependency

What’s happening in the increasingly violent protests in Greece is interesting. As near as I can make out, it seems that the rioters are rioting against "reality," i.e. the fact that the Greek government no longer has money to give them, and can no longer support them (the obvious solution of course is to get … Read more

Welfare Reform after Ten Years: New Hampshire Fails to “End Welfare as We Know it”

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Our friend Karen Testerman at Cornerstone Policy Research sends the following sad news about opportunity lost here in the Granite State:

New state-by-state survey ranks, grades states by the success
of their anti-poverty efforts and by the reform policies they adopted

When President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, he gave the states unprecedented flexibility in implementing welfare reform.

Elected officials and human services professionals in California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, and Virginia most successfully seized the opportunities provided by the new law, developing thoughtful reform policies and integrating services needed to help millions of former welfare recipients move into the workplace.

But New Hampshire was less ambitious, failing to take advantage of opportunities available to improve effectiveness at the state level.

Welfare Reform After Ten Years: A State-by-State Analysis, released by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Heartland Institute, ranks the 50 states and the District of Columbia, grading them by the success of their anti-poverty efforts and by the reform policies they adopted.

New Hampshire earned a grade of F, as did Colorado, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

The state trimmed its welfare rolls between 1996 and 2006 by just 43 percent, while the national average of all states fell by 68 percent, to 4.1 million recipients from 12.2 million.

Overall, New Hampshire posted the fourth-worst effort at reform in the nation. It ranked near the bottom for results (49th) and for its reform policies (39th).

 

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