I read the piece and made a comment about welfare. Why are you being a dick? Actually it did reform welfare as we knew it, which was the program that sent a check to qualified families that was replaced in 1996 with the more accountable TANF program. You are lumping every government assistance you can think of as welfare. Yes there are still people receiving cash and afraid to get off assistance, but it's hard to see how much more we can do but limit their time in the program and make them get training and seek work which is what the 90's reforms did. Many disagree. Welfare and poverty rates both declined during the late-1990s.
Many disagree. Welfare and poverty rates both declined during the late-1990s.[/quote] Well they made a come back in 2008. They don't call Barry the food stamp pres for nothing. Welfare Skyrockets under Obama, $1 Trillion in 2011 ... www.judicialwatch.org/.../welfare-skyrockets-under-obama... Welfare Skyrockets under Obama, $1 ... Earlier this year a federal audit revealed that many who don’t qualify receive them under a special Obama Administration, ... $59000 government assistance avg per household. And to think I've been working 2 jobs to provide for my family. All I need to do it quit both and get on that teet
Red, do you not think we still have many families in this country that have now been on welfare for generations? I've studied generational poverty for a while, and although living on welfare is barely living at all, too many families have done this year after year after year. I would prefer for the government to put welfare recipients to work, if the government feels they must support people. Give the recipients free childcare--re-structure the head-start program to help welfare children not be behind all of the other kids when they arrive in kindergarten.
I have no issues with any of this, just pointing out that much of what you ask for has already been done and has been effective. That is not meant to suggest that nothing more can be done, surely it can. My response was to the remark "We need to make changes that incentivise successful behavior and help people be better situated to live off of welfare. I believe there should be some mandate for education and work training". Well, that is exactly what was done in the 1990's. It is not meant to suggest that measures to keep people from ever getting on the dole are not good ideas. Just pointing out that welfare checks have come with training and work requirements and a 3-year lifetime limit for some time now. My feeling is that there is a point of diminishing returns when adding up more and more requirements to receive aid. It takes more and more case workers to keep up with the requirements, approve them, enforce them, more paperwork, more costs. Adding more costs to the welfare system that don't even go to the recipients seems like a needless waste. There is a balance that must be established here. I think much more than incentive is involved in getting people into the workforce. No one wants to be on the dole, they are there because they have nowhere else to turn. Providing other options as Winston suggests or free childcare as Stacey suggests make more sense than more expensive drug tests and other chickenshit bureaucratic requirements that can only be implemented at increased cost of overhead.
I don't think anyone would argue that our welfare program is effective. Adult participants may be limited to 60 months (not three years) of cash assistance, through TANF, but certain things can cause months when you receive TANF to be exempted and not count twords the 60. After the 60 months are exhausted your term can be extended for many reasons. Also having children still allows for a child grant the adult participant has 60 months, kids have more time. On top of that other programs (food stamps, housing assistance, utility assistance through CSBG) do not have those limitations. To mkae matters worse, the workforce development programs welfare recipients are cycled through are horribly ineffective. Money spent on WIA Adult is more wasteful than the direct cash grants through TANF IMHO.
Good points all. It seems we have too many agencies all with $$ to hand out. I would like to see 1 central registery that would triage each applicant and assign a manager responsible for ALL manners of assistance to put together all the various benifits and attendent requirements and oversee each recipient's progress (or lack thereof). In keeping with the federalist ideas each state would have enough automony to set up the that meets its situation. Lets face it Bloomington Mn has different issues than New York City. I would expect the initial cost of such a program to be higher than we have today but successfully implemented and managed we will benifit much by making productive members of society from those who now cost. We also need to recognize some through mental illness, or just being bad people will never contribute and need to be managed in other ways such as mental support or prison depending on the need or issue. The path to minimize our cost is not to cut back service but to make wise investment in helping people help themselves.
