Let’s crack down on ALL welfare!
State Rep. Fulton Sheen’s (R-Plainwell) public relations machine is singing his praises for being on board with the Michigan House of Representatives’ latest “welfare reform” package of bills. It’s just another chapter in the GOP’s play book that should be called “Let’s Beat up on the Poor Again.” And the biggest reason they like to beat up on them is they don’t vote. Another is that a lot of frustrated voters want scapegoats, regardless of whether or not they’re the problem. The Republican press office had the gall to claim this new welfare package actually helps poor people on public assistance while practicing tough love for their own good. Sheen was quoted in the press release as saying, “We want to offer a hand up, not a handout. It is also our responsibility to make sure that tax money is being spent efficiently and proactively.” That’s interesting. I bet Sheen feels altogether differently about corporate welfare, in which public tax dollars are spent through abatements to help companies be more "competitive." A lot of time the companies take the tax breaks for a while and then leave, like Tyden in Hastings which pulled up stakes after raking in about $78,000 of public money in tax breaks, in order to move their company overseas to exploit the cheaper labor force while still expecting Americans to buy their products. Where is his concern about that process? Where is a law spelling out penalties for companies that benefit from tax breaks and then cut and run and give good-paying jobs to cheap overseas labor?
The Republican press corps reports these new welfare reforms “place an emphasis on education and job training, and limit welfare assistance to 48 months for able-bodied recipients, including a maximum of 24 consecutive months of assistance. Recipients will be given a range of services to prepare them for the work force and help them find work, while making sure taxpayer money is used wisely.
Amendments to the welfare reform package were added to:
• Prevent murders, rapists, other violent criminals and fugitives from justice from receiving state welfare checks;
• Include a 24-month suspension from state payments for violating work requirements three times;
• Create a pilot program for drug testing people who receive welfare if they are suspected of illegal drug use; and
• Require recipients to show proof of U.S. citizenship before receiving state welfare payments and demand that proper authorities be contacted if it is found that a person is in the United States illegally.
The package of bills also includes a tougher sanctions policy for those who "refuse" to work.
What would happen if state government insisted every CEO of a company getting tax abatement be tested for drugs or be required to show proof of citizenship? And what happens, if anything, when business violates environmental or workplace rules — do they get busted and cut off entirely like welfare cheats?
This is just another horrible example of politicians beating up on the poor, because they can, and meanwhile looking the other way when the more well to do commit similar crimes. When Rush Limbaugh and Gov. Jeb Bush’s daughter were busted for drug abuse, they got treatment, not incarceration. But Joe Homeless and Jane Street Walker wind up in jail or prison for the same offenses.
Where is the outrage?
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7 comments:
Good post. There is definitely a double-standard in this country. Those in power get the gold mine and the poor get the shaft.
I have a great idea... lets coerce all the working people in america to give FOUR YEARS of free handouts and you don't have to do anything for it. You don't even have to be a citizen or show ID or stay off drugs. Oh and don't bother looking for a job, we'll just give you all the free food, housing and health care you need.
I am totally against corporate welfare including farm subsidies except in cases where lowering taxes brings employers into a community (i.e. enterprise zones, etc.). Bringing business to communities actually helps people get jobs.
If you want to help your fellow man, give to charities or better yet start your own. They have much better efficiency, better accountability and don't compel by threat of jail to help people.
It's really interesting we have the richest poor in the world. Most of our poor have TV's, Cars, Cell Phones and access to health care (at our expense) in emergency rooms. If you want to see what poverty is all about, go to Africa. Most of our "poor" are simply lazy and don't deserve most of they get from the rest of us.
A little accountability for the privledge of assitance would go a long way to solving the welfare crisis in this state!
It's hardly a crisis. Yawn. Nobody likes seeing someone else get money for nothing. Nobody likes working all day while someone else gets a handout from the government. But we need to realize as a society that some people are mentally and socially unable to perform or keep a job. The same mentality that calls everyone on welfare a bum is the same mentality that closes mental hospitals and throws mentally ill people on the street and then turns around and complains about how many homeless people there are. It seems the conservative mind just cannot walk a mile in someone else's shoes and realize that not all people are equipped to function in society and need some kind of help.
Responibility goes both ways though.
When banks are allowed to give credit cards to people that have declared bankruptcy, you are going to end up with the "richest poor" in the world.
Yeah not africa poor, but poor that has the ability to go into deeper debt than any child born on the african contintent today.
Annonymous wishes that the american poor were laying in huts by trash heaps, with streams of feces running through them, because it would make more sense to him. He has been sold a bill of goods by politicians, the same ones in office now, saying that if you are poor in this country then you are not working hard enough.
To declare poor people unworthy of welfare simply for having a television is a classist statement that needs to be ignored.
On the other hand it seems the disscussion should be how much of the american debt is owned by each and every one of us? Maybe if we all had to give up a television, or cell phone we would feel the pain our children will in years to come.
Come on annonymous what the hell are you doing with a computer when this country can't afford to wage war?
I think annonymous should be drug tested! Along with anyone else who thinks the poor in this country are the ones wrecking their lives.
Wow, you guys go out on a self-rightous rant when all Anon. suggested was that those who take assistance accept some accountablity for the priviledge.
I've seen first hand how the "poor" operate in this country. They wouldn't take a job if offered them, they prefer to suckle off the rest of us. There are those who are down on their luck and we should help them. Many of us are one paycheck away form being there also. Many in government want to keep the underclass in perpetual poverty, apparently it empowers them, that's inexcusable.
America is the land of plenty and opportunities are everywhere. That used to be the American way, now all these bleeding hearts want to give people a handout instead of a hand up!
There's room in the economy for everyone. Poverty for many is a self imposed state, and state of mind which is escapable, but it takes effort.
Like my grandfather used to say "You have to be willing for the shilling." Trouble is we have multiple generations who are no longer "willing."
"A shilling if you're willing."
Also a come on to hookers in bonnie old Scottland during the turn of the century.
Yeah, I know that is not what your grandfather meant, but sometimes it carries the same stigma to present day poor folk.
Speaking of self-rightous rants, When you saw first hand how the "poor" opperate in this country was it as someone who wanted to help, or just an opportune moment to prove to them what you had, and what they could get if they allowed themselves to be pushed around?
Those jobs you offered them, was it work that you have done, or are willing to do for the money you offered them? Would they pay enough money to sustain a family on? Did they include a healthcare benefit? Did you offer childcare for their children?
As for poverty being a state of mind. You may be onto something there. I hope you recognize a need for counseling and mental health services that have been gutted recently on both the state and federal level. You see we can agree!
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