Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation:
The House and Senate stimulus bills will overturn the fiscal foundation of welfare reform and restore an AFDC-style funding system. For the first time since 1996, the federal government would begin paying states bonuses to increase their welfare caseloads. Indeed, the new welfare system created by the stimulus bills is actually worse than the old AFDC program because it rewards the states more heavily to increase their caseloads. Under the stimulus bills, the federal government will pay 80 percent of cost for each new family that a state enrolls in welfare; this matching rate is far higher than it was under AFDC.
It is clear that–in both the House and Senate stimulus bills–the original goal of helping families move to employment and self-sufficiency and off long-term dependence on government assistance has instead been replaced with the perverse incentive of adding more families to the welfare rolls. The House bill provides $4 billion per year to reward states to increase their TANF caseloads; the Senate bill follows the same policy but allocates less money.
What’s the real objective here?
The goal of the bills is “spreading the wealth,” not reviving the economy.
“…today does mark the beginning of the end…”
-President Barack Obama
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
Reparations …
The “where’s my check” society is upon us once again in full force. Government dependency = good little stewards of the election process. Some one said the other day that at the pace Obama and the Democrats are moving, it will only take two more years for Hugo Chavez to be qualified to run for POTUS.
I was once a supporter of Bill Clinton. What he’s doing though is not only betraying his own legacy but ignoring his own culpability for this mess.
His intent was to “end welfare as we know it”. Well, it’s back. With a vengeance. He insisted “the era of big government is over.” It’s coming back too, bigger than ever. And deficits “as far as the eye can see”.
I’d also like to see him acknowledge his own culpability for the housing inspired mess. It was under his leadership that Housing Secretary Cuomo pushed for trillions – yes, trillions – in mortgage assistance to those who wouldn’t otherwise qualify for them. Backed, of course, by government guarantees.
I wrote about this exact thing on my blog the other day:
http://franklinslocke.blogspot.com/2009/02/obamas-great-welfare-state.html
Not only is he buying votes for today, he is cementing Democratic rule for a generation. Liberals are destroying our American ideals one institution at a time. The sad thing is we have two whole generations that are so poorly educated that they don’t understand the long term affects of these policies and principles. These generations are so dependent on the government they do not know how to survive without it.
Socialism rots society from within until there is nothing left. We must spread the word. No one else is. They are worshipping Obama like he the next greatest president. WOW! The joke is on them. He isn’t going to amount to anything more than the next Wilson or Carter.
http://franklinslocke.blogspot.com/
If Bill Clinton were not so adept at redefining reality to suit his immediate needs I might feel sorry for him as he watches his legacy of centrist Democrat policies like welfare reform being savaged by the extremists in today’s Democrat party.
But like most other Dems, Bill will drink the kool aid and go on his merry way.
So, screw him!
One of the biggest problems in the UK (and other western countries)is the welfare state. It would be good it was a temporary safety net to help people who find themselves in difficulty but there is little incentive to move off it. I believe there are people who choose not to work – who choose not to reskill because why bother? The benefits, housing etc is there to be used.
I am a liberal but I believe in workfare. If you don’t find a job by 3 months then a range of jobs will be made available. They might not be attractive – but they are there to ensure the person gets up everyday and gets back into a work routine and isn’t a drain on national resources. Then whilst they are doing this they can search for a better job if they so wish. If you refuse then stop the welfare payment. Same with kids – why does the state payout regardless the amount of kids people have?
@GaffaUK:
:: Blinks twice. ::
:: Rubs eyes. ::
Gaffa, I think this is the first post you’ve ever created here that I agree with totally.
By the way Gaffa, great artwork.
Yeah I try to convince you guys that I am not wholly on the left. In fact I don’t see myself on the left at all (more of a centralist – hence liberal as opposed to socialist which I would never vote for) but looking through the prism of US politics I have to accept that you would see me as left. BUT that doesn’t make me a signed up supporter of the Democrats. I believe in a basic work ethic and having suitable punishment for those who break the law. With welfare – the problem isn’t so much those on it (although a bit of pride wouldn’t go a miss) but the system itself. If you are legally playing the system then it’s the system that is the ass – and I’m surprised even when right-wing governments don’t seem to change this. This isn’t advocating Victorian values – but a ‘temporary’ hand up. If you start taking the p*** then that help should be withdrawn using reasonable rules. Even Thatcher, back in the 80s, dumped millions from the unemployment list to incapcity benefits to massage the figures – how does that help? Get them off unemployment and sickness benefit by finding out who is genuine and who is playing the system. Carrot & stick.
As for artwork – yeah – I need to get back into it – I’m thinking about doing Palin but is it too late?
Call me a hardass, but I don’t think welfare should pay more than say…90% of minimum wage. Why should the lowest paid worker ever make less than someone who is sitting on their couch watching their flat screen TV.
I stopped accepting food stamps in my stores almost twenty years ago because I couldn’t stand to be a part of the abuse of the system. It got old telling people that, no, you can’t buy beer with those, no, you can’t buy cigarettes with those, no, you can’t buy hot foods with those, no, you can’t buy….etc…
I remember one time, when I was trying to explain to a lady that according to the rules (As they had been drilled into me by the Dept of Ag. rep) she could buy a fountain drink with her food stamps only if she put a lid on it and didn’t put the straw in, (stupid, I know, but that was the rules laid down by the feds) she started screaming that I was discriminating against her.
Another time, a little kid came in with a stack of $1 stamps and wanted to buy a 10 cent pack of gum with each one of them. (for those that don’t know, $5 and above stamps were required to be removed from the book in the presence of the clerk, but $1 bills could be spent loosely by anyone. Change had to be given in $1 stamps and real coins. It was illegal to make separate purchases with the intent of maximizing the real coin change you received.) When I rang the gum sticks together, he said, no, my mom needs the change for the phone. I refused the sale (as the law required me to do) and went outside to the payphone and explained that what she was asking her son to do was fraud. After she screamed at me, I wrote down her license plate # and reported her to the rep. At that time, they were pretty serious about booting frauds from the system.
I stopped taking them that week. Electronic processing has probably eliminated a lot of that, I hope, but I washed my hands of it and won’t ever go back.
Seeing as how clinton and the dems fought the reform until they
saw how much support it had, they deserve no credit in my eyes.
BTW, Clinton was one of the kool-aid drinkers too, he was just better
at disguising that fact than the ones today.