Articles tagged as

Welfare

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

welfare

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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Are our tax dollars subsidizing bad behavior and helping to facilitate the breakdown of the family?

As noted in this prior posting, NH’s Cornerstone Policy Research joined other national policy and research groups across the nation Tuesday to release a first-time ever research report that quantifies the annual taxpayer cost from high rates of divorce and unmarried childbearing. The report tells us that here in the Granite State A large percentage of … Read more

Welfare Poem

welfare sticker
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Well, I have no idea if the figures in the poem below are correct, etc., but you get the drift, huh? Read the poem (after my discourse)  and let me know if it makes you angry, okay?
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Somewhat related to this, I’ve been following some of the coverage on the Pelosi/Shea-Pompous upcoming trip to New Orleans along with the other 13-14 democratic party animals. The story is interesting. Why, you ask? The comments are overwhelmingly against them going to New Orleans for what most people believe is merely another photo op and Bush bashing expedition at taxpayers’ expense.
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What does Congress do about approval ratings in the single digits? Go on a trip, of course. They are all on vacation anyway. Many people are mad at Pompous and wondering why she doesn’t work here in NH to solve fixing the many roads and bridges that are red-lined, help those who have suffered flooding problems here, feed the one in ten children who go to bed hungry…you know work on NH’s many unsolved problems. We’re 6th in income but 49th in services to citizens right here in NH. Where’s the NH way?
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Not a big photo op here, I guess, as it probably wouldn’t get national exposure. Playing on people’s sympathies works very well many times. What some people don’t seem to understand is that you can fell sorry for somebody, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to "do" something for them, especially if they’re not willing to do something for themselves.
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We all like to give, partly because it makes us feel good about ourselves. Obviously, when there’s a real crisis as there was with Katrina, we should all try to do our part to help. But, sometimes people don’t appreciate what they get for nothing so it can be more harmful to them and what they may need is to become responsible and accountable and held to a higher standard sometimes too. I’m not saying we still shouldn’t be trying to help people in New Orleans, but sometimes "help" can actually hurt.
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I was in Vail about a year ago. I rode the shuttle van from Denver and met a New Orleans’ football player who was going to see an ortopaedist in Vail. We started talking about Hurricane Katrina.
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Less Work. More Money!

Again I ask, "Why?" Who wanted this? Was there a mass-mailed flyer I missed? A TV ad? I did not know that MY state senator ran a campaign that included making welfare easier to get and keep getting here in NH. Chris Dornin, writing for Golden Dome News in the Laconia Daily Sun (unavailable online) has … Read more

Just say “No!” (to the United Way)

As if a person needed another reason to tell the United Way to "stick it" when they come calling… . Consider this little piece of news about United Way activities. Not content with bullying Boy Scouts, enticing companies to "shake down" their employees, paying exhorbitant executive salaries, and otherwise putting long-time charities out of business, now … Read more

An entitlement parsonage?

(H/T: Lucianne.com)

The New Orlean Times-Picayune has a story about a 23 year old single mom who appeared on the Oprah show, destitute from Katrina.  A church in the Chicago area offered her their parsonage for free for her and her two daughters and son (now 5, 1, and 4 months). and she moved into it in September.

She had a job back in October, which seemed to end soon after she got it.  She subsequently said no to several other jobs (as the article states):

She has since stayed home to raise the children.

A year has effectively gone by, and the church wants its parsonage (a house usually owned by a church for use by its clergy) back.  She doesn’t want to go. Complicating the matter a bit, there seems to be a "church said / she said" disagreement about her leaving – was it June (the church) or December (the mom).  She says that she has no money to go anywhere.

The story does say a single mom – no mention of a boyfriend coming up with her from New Orleans. So I will ask the hard question:  Where’s the Dad?   The answer is "Who knows?" (certainly not from the story – no mention at all).  So I will assume the worst – he skipped out.

Oh, but Skip, you’re being judgemental, you mean spirited conservative Republican who, in this case, REALLY wants to throw the baby out with the bathwater for bringing it up. 

My answer is that this question is not being asked enough; the discussion on this has been put away too many times because it is too sensitive.  It is judgemental and rightfully so, this affects kids.  I applaud Bill Cosby (still love his "Noah" bit after all these years) for causing a ruckus in the black community about the problems in the black community, among them unwed mothers and men refusing to be fathers (and yes, I am stereotyping here based based on the names of the mother and offsprings – the story doesn’t say but they certainly aren’t from my Irish or Swedish background).

So why isn’t Dad in the picture, providing for his family?  What is it about a lot of men (or should I just call them kids?) that they feel that they do not have to provide for what they have created?  Is it just a "all about me" mentality, or is it just a lack of maturity and a willingness to take responsibility for one’s actions (and their results)?

Andy why do we let them get away with it? 

 

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