AP IMPACT: Assistance rolls increase

WASHINGTON - The welfare state is bigger than ever despite a decade of policies designed to wean poor people from public aid.

The number of families receiving cash benefits from welfare has plummeted since the government imposed time limits on the payments a decade ago. But other programs for the poor, including Medicaid, food stamps and disability benefits, are bursting with new enrollees.

The result, according to an Associated Press analysis: Nearly one in six people rely on some form of public assistance, a larger share than at any time since the government started measuring two decades ago.

Critics of the welfare overhaul say the numbers offer fresh evidence that few former recipients have become self-sufficient, even though millions have moved from welfare to work. They say the vast majority have been forced into low-paying jobs without benefits and few opportunities to advance.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070225/ap_on_re_us/welfare_state

Talk to any welfare worker or job counselor up here in NJ, for longer than 5 minutes, and you will be amazed at the things they will tell you. They know that things are terrible and that government policies are making things a lot worse.

One supervisor I talked to, from The Department of Labor, sounded WAYYYY more radical than I ever have. She's ready to grab a pitchfork and head to the barricades.

:kick:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070226/ap_on_re_us/welfare_state;_ylt=ApctyUgRc.Kql.p6bP3qgATMWM0F

Welfare state growing despite overhauls

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 19 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The welfare state is bigger than ever despite a decade of policies designed to wean poor people from public aid.


The number of families receiving cash benefits from welfare has plummeted since the government imposed time limits on the payments a decade ago. But other programs for the poor, including Medicaid, food stamps and disability benefits, are bursting with new enrollees.

The result, according to an Associated Press analysis: Nearly one in six people rely on some form of public assistance, a larger share than at any time since the government started measuring two decades ago.

Critics of the welfare overhaul say the numbers offer fresh evidence that few former recipients have become self-sufficient, even though millions have moved from welfare to work. They say the vast majority have been forced into low-paying jobs without benefits and few opportunities to advance

after day--picking up food with stamps,-------relying on the goodness of the state. ect ect.


........Proponents of the changes in welfare say programs that once discouraged work now offer support to people in low-paying jobs. They point to expanded eligibility rules for food stamps and Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor, that enable people to keep getting benefits even after they start working.

"I don't have any problems with those programs growing, and indeed, they were intended to grow," said Ron Haskins, a former adviser to
President Bush on welfare policy.

"We've taken the step of getting way more people into the labor force and they have taken a huge step toward self-sufficiency. What is the other choice?" he asked.

In the early 1990s, critics contended the welfare system encouraged unemployment and promoted single-parent families. Welfare recipients, mostly single mothers, could lose benefits if they earned too much money or if they lived with the father of their children.

Where can people turn to? There's a greater number of people that need to see a dentist, than there are ways to make that happen. What can we build? Any monument that can be built by man, can be built better and faster by machines. We need educated citizens. Well, those inner city schools without enough funding... Where do you think the money for the war was coming from?

There are so many ways to be sunk. Health, education, credit, history, legally, etc, etc, etc. How do you dig your way out of hell, when at least it's the hell you know? The drug problem hemorrhages money out of america, and inexpensive imports make it more and more impossible to employ americans. Indians are better educated and cheaper thinkers than americans. How can we afford to pay for things in america, when the imports are so cheap? The hemorrhage continues...

Building houses only employs so many, and efficient houses are too easy and cheap to build.

Cures for diseases and the improvements in citizen health would disrupt the flow of money to the people who spend that flow. Good health costs too much.

Can you imagine everyone being processed quickly and safely at airports and shipping containers being personally inspected? Yep, that's a massive number of people. Yep, that's a massive amount of money. It would force the creation of industries in america, to avoid the costs of inspected imports.

Money IS blood. If you don't control where it's going, you're losing it.

a college educated middle aged person is laid off. He takes a retail job. Folks who take a retail job start taking low wage blue collar jobs. Blue collar workers start taking day labor. Day laborers are on the street.

Everyone just gets boned.

:kick: