Can Trump Turn Welfare into Workfare

[Conservative65]

I think people are missing the big picture here. If the gov sends millions of jobs out of the country then it should take care of the ones it fucked. Why do you blame the victim? Because you dont know the truth or maybe you dont care about the truth.
MAR 14, 2014 @ 10:09 AM 175,779 VIEWSThe Little Black Book of Billionaire Secrets
Where Is The Outrage Over Corporate Welfare?




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David Brunori, Contributor
I recently read the February 24 Good Jobs First report, “Subsidizing the Corporate One Percent,” by Philip Mattera, a respected thought leader in our business. It says that three-quarters of all state economic development subsidies went to just 965 corporations since the beginning of the study in 1976. The Fortune 500 corporations alone accounted for more than 16,000 subsidy awards, worth $63 billion – mostly in the form of tax breaks.

Think about that. The largest, wealthiest, most powerful organizations in the world are on the public dole. Where is the outrage? Back when I was young, people went into a frenzy at the thought of some unemployed person using food stamps to buy liquor or cigarettes. Ronald Reagan famously campaigned against welfare queens. The right has always been obsessed with moochers. But Boeing receives $13 billion in government handouts and everyone yawns, when conservatives should be grabbing their pitchforks.

According to Good Jobs First, there are 514 economic development programs in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. More than 245,000 awards have been granted under those programs. I ask again, where is the outrage? The system is antithetical to the idea of free markets. A quarter of a million times, state governments decided what is best for producers and consumers. That should make us cringe. First, the government is inefficient at providing public goods, and it is terrible at manipulating the markets for private goods. But more importantly, those 514 economic development programs are almost all the result of insidious cronyism. Narrow business interests manipulate government policymakers, and those interests prosper to the detriment of everyone else. Free markets be damned.

And while I’m looking for outrage, where are the liberals? The 965 companies in the report received over $110 billion of public money. Berkshire Hathaway, a company with $485 billion in assets and $20 billion in profits, received over $1 billion of that money. Its chair, Warren Buffett, is worth about $58 billion. Buffett, by the way, is still a darling of the left. He has some nerve to call for higher taxes. The billion dollars his companies took would pay for a lot of teachers, healthcare, and other public services.
I don’t blame the corporations. They act rationally. If someone gives you $1 billion, you take it. The blame lies with us. The sheer size of the corporate welfare system should spark outrage whether we are conservatives, liberals, or libertarians. And that outrage should be reflected in how we vote. In the meantime, kudos to Good Jobs First for continuing to highlight this problem.



Put America back to work. Thats what we want. Jobs and good pay. Thats how you build a strong economy. Not with the stock market. Now, we all know how fiscal responsible you are by your own words so, where is your outrage?

Typical Commie; thinking that letting people keep their own money that they worked for (instead of handing it over to government) is welfare.

a subsidy is a subsidy. the right doesn't seem to have a problem with corporate welfare as long as it isn't individual welfare.

No such thing as corporate welfare.

 

[Conservative65]

lol So putting Americans to work is a bad idea in your opinion?

lol. You make it seem like that is the Only way.

No, there are certainly more measures to be taken to create jobs for Americans but getting rid of illegal immigrants is certainly one of them.

the most expensive one.

Not at all. Getting rid of illegals will provide more jobs for Americans and higher wages.

You make it sound so simple; sort of like, Prohibition.

It is that simple. The complication comes when people like you obstruct it from being done.

 

[usmbguest5318]

Food stamp recipients in the following states are now required to work, volunteer, or take job-training classes for at least 20 hours a week:

1. Iowa
2. Minnesota
3. Nebraska
4. New Hampshire
5. North Dakota
6. Oklahoma
7. South Dakota
8. Vermont
9. Virginia
10. Wyoming
11. Kansas
12. Oklahoma
13. Utah
14. Ohio
15. New York
16. Texas
17. Wisconsin
18. Maine
19. New Mexico
20. Pennsylvania

The Clinton Administration implemented work requirements for food stamp benefits. The Obama Administration gave states the option of waiving the work requirements for food stamp benefits. As of 2015, 40+ states had wholly or partially opted to waive the requirements, and one will notice that of them, more than a few that have fully or partially waived the work requires have long been GOP run states -- AL, MS, AK, SC, and ID, for example.



Thus if one finds irksome there being too few food stamp beneficiaries being motivated not to work due to the absence of a work requirement, one's ire must be distributed among liberal and conservative lawmakers. Given the control of the GOP in many of the states that have full or partial waivers, they could have long before 2015 brought an end to the waivers to Clinton's work requirements, yet they did not.

2010 -- State of power sharing in state governments

2014 Gubernatorial Results

2014 State Legislature Results

 

[Bush92]

We can give out free alarm clocks so welfare queens can get up at 4:00 and get ready for work like everyone else.

 

[Bush92]

honestly think public housing and food stamps can be gotten rid of all together. Woman can find herself a working man. My tax dollars do not need to subsidize your single lifestyle. My tax dollars do not need to subsidize 1970's attitude of women's lib. We created whores through government subsidies. We encourage this lifestyle due to a lack of consequences.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

honestly think public housing and food stamps can be gotten rid of all together. Woman can find herself a working man. My tax dollars do not need to subsidize your single lifestyle. My tax dollars do not need to subsidize 1970's attitude of women's lib. We created whores through government subsidies. We encourage this lifestyle due to a lack of consequences.

I don't mind housing as much as where the housing is at. WTF is HUD buying and renting homes in suburbs instead of just the city where it's cheaper?

My neighbor just bought rental property next door to me. He couldn't rent his apartments out because he was asking too much money for them. So he went to HUD. Now there are two HUD people living next door to me. They make noise up to midnight during work nights. They each have three or four kids making noise during the day. They drive mini-vans and SUV's, something I wish I could afford, and it's my tax dollars paying for most of it.

I have to work a full-time job to live in the suburbs, and these people get to live here without working. That needs to stop. Hey, if I have to support you, fine, I'll support you in the inner-city, but not here.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

"Making war on welfare recipients?" FDR never had s single program during Depression where you did not work for your $$$$. Nobody complained back then happy to have the $$$. Today people take social safety net for granted. Trump will bring jobs back and that should help get people earning pay checks again.

most people on welfare are CHILDREN, then comes their mothers then comes the elderly, then disabled.....

Fdr didn't put mother's or children to work...

It's different now because of all the divorced or single mothers.

So now they are our liability?

I live in the suburbs. I go to work everyday so I can live here. The guy next door to me has rental property as well. Because he couldn't find takers due to his high prices, he went to HUD.

There are now two tenants living there on HUD. Both (of course) have kids. While I'm out working to support my lifestyle, they sit home all day long. When I leave for work in the morning, their cars are there. When I get home from work, their cars are there. When I was on vacation during the work week, their cars were there.

Gee, I wish I could just sit home day in and day out. But I don't have kids that I can't afford, so I can't live that lifestyle.

There is something terribly wrong with a society when people that don't work live better than people that do. It's time we changed all that.

Just give them a job.

You can't give somebody something they don't want.

If you "made" them work, daniel would cry about it being involuntary servitude.

Their very same claim that was made when the Republicans passed Welfare Reform back in the 90's.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Those children are the PARENT'S responsibility. Those mother made a choice with their body to have those children. If the choice is her, the responsibility is hers. If that single mother chose to have kids, she, by default, accepted the responsibility for supporting them. Since I didn't produce them, I didn't make the choice or accept the responsibility to do so.

My parents, both over 80, are elderly. They take care of themselves very well financially and otherwise. However, should they need something, it's my responsibility, not yours or anyone else's, to do so.

Truly disabled fits into the category of CAN'T. However, many of those on disability don't fit that. They simply don't want to work and have found a way to get around that responsibility. Had a neighbor growing up that was SUPPOSEDLY disabled enough physically that he couldn't do his job so he collected disability. Interesting thing was he was physically able enough to do all sorts of physically demanding things around the house that were much more demanding that what was required in a job he said he couldn't do.

I have a neighbor just like that. He's around my age; 56 or so, but he never could work very much because he's a drunk. He would work construction jobs for a day or so and then quit after he earned enough drinking money for a couple of weeks.

So he claims, he hurt himself on a job he was doing, and hasn't worked after that. He lives with his mother as he has his entire life. She takes care of him for some reason. The guy doesn't drive and he has no bills to pay. But he constantly bothers his neighbors to loan him money for beer and booze. He spends his entire disability check on alcohol and cigarettes.

Because he and his mother fight all the time, he spends a lot of his time in the garage. There he has his stereo set up, some furniture, and has friends come over for drinking nights.....well days and nights to be honest. They don't work either.

 

[Kondor3]

Bah just let them live.

They can live all they want...

On their own dime...

For those who have no dime...

Work...

For those who cannot work...

Sufficient public assistance, to live halfway-decently...

 

[Windship]

Wow!...ok, an employer will cut jobs to make more profit and work the piss out of the remaining employees. What dream are you in? If your going to try and make someone look stupid, try and not make yourself look stupid while IN that attempt. Its counterproductive.

Me look stupid? You didn't even address what we were talking about.

Yeah, ray....from Cleveland...you are stupid, sorry I didnt write what you did...YOU did.

 

[Bush92]

honestly think public housing and food stamps can be gotten rid of all together. Woman can find herself a working man. My tax dollars do not need to subsidize your single lifestyle. My tax dollars do not need to subsidize 1970's attitude of women's lib. We created whores through government subsidies. We encourage this lifestyle due to a lack of consequences.

I don't mind housing as much as where the housing is at. WTF is HUD buying and renting homes in suburbs instead of just the city where it's cheaper?

My neighbor just bought rental property next door to me. He couldn't rent his apartments out because he was asking too much money for them. So he went to HUD. Now there are two HUD people living next door to me. They make noise up to midnight during work nights. They each have three or four kids making noise during the day. They drive mini-vans and SUV's, something I wish I could afford, and it's my tax dollars paying for most of it.

I have to work a full-time job to live in the suburbs, and these people get to live here without working. That needs to stop. Hey, if I have to support you, fine, I'll support you in the inner-city, but not here.

Bullshit federal government.

 

[Conservative65]

Those children are the PARENT'S responsibility. Those mother made a choice with their body to have those children. If the choice is her, the responsibility is hers. If that single mother chose to have kids, she, by default, accepted the responsibility for supporting them. Since I didn't produce them, I didn't make the choice or accept the responsibility to do so.

My parents, both over 80, are elderly. They take care of themselves very well financially and otherwise. However, should they need something, it's my responsibility, not yours or anyone else's, to do so.

Truly disabled fits into the category of CAN'T. However, many of those on disability don't fit that. They simply don't want to work and have found a way to get around that responsibility. Had a neighbor growing up that was SUPPOSEDLY disabled enough physically that he couldn't do his job so he collected disability. Interesting thing was he was physically able enough to do all sorts of physically demanding things around the house that were much more demanding that what was required in a job he said he couldn't do.

I have a neighbor just like that. He's around my age; 56 or so, but he never could work very much because he's a drunk. He would work construction jobs for a day or so and then quit after he earned enough drinking money for a couple of weeks.

So he claims, he hurt himself on a job he was doing, and hasn't worked after that. He lives with his mother as he has his entire life. She takes care of him for some reason. The guy doesn't drive and he has no bills to pay. But he constantly bothers his neighbors to loan him money for beer and booze. He spends his entire disability check on alcohol and cigarettes.

Because he and his mother fight all the time, he spends a lot of his time in the garage. There he has his stereo set up, some furniture, and has friends come over for drinking nights.....well days and nights to be honest. They don't work either.

Sounds like the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree with that clown.

The neighbor of mine was several years older than me. He was my parent's age or slightly older. When I was younger, I asked my mother why he didn't work. She said he considered physically disabled and claimed to have hurt his back on the job he claimed he couldn't do. Interesting part was that I remember seeing him paint his house, work on cars, and build a garage in his back yard all while being physically unable to do a job that involved much less physical demanding activity that doing what he did.

 

[Windship]

If it is money your worried about, why dont you look at corporate welfare which dwarfs the other. How bout 21 tusd given to the banks since 2008? What about the dozens of contractors in the middle east making insane profits on no bid contracts?...or maybe...hey!...why dontcha just look at the federal reserve....but you pick on the weakest, smallest part. I think your ilk knows the real numbers. Your a coward. Just a common coward.

 

[Windship]

The Constitution was written shortly after The Gadsden flag started to be used by The Continental Marines. What do you think their state of mind was? I think your use of the Gadsden flag is misrepresented by you weirdo's. It doesnt represent money and only money.

 

[usmbguest5318]

The Constitution was written shortly after The Gadsden flag started to be used by The Continental Marines. What do you think their state of mind was? I think your use of the Gadsden flag is misrepresented by you weirdo's. It doesnt represent money and only money.

If my recollection of the history behind that flag is still accurate, I don't think it had much of anything to directly with money, but rather with arms and armaments. Sure, one can wind and wend one's way to wring some sort of willowy wampum related wherefore of the actions carried out by men waving it, largely because sooner or later "everything" comes down to money, but that's about the limit of how far one can wrangle that line.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Those children are the PARENT'S responsibility. Those mother made a choice with their body to have those children. If the choice is her, the responsibility is hers. If that single mother chose to have kids, she, by default, accepted the responsibility for supporting them. Since I didn't produce them, I didn't make the choice or accept the responsibility to do so.

My parents, both over 80, are elderly. They take care of themselves very well financially and otherwise. However, should they need something, it's my responsibility, not yours or anyone else's, to do so.

Truly disabled fits into the category of CAN'T. However, many of those on disability don't fit that. They simply don't want to work and have found a way to get around that responsibility. Had a neighbor growing up that was SUPPOSEDLY disabled enough physically that he couldn't do his job so he collected disability. Interesting thing was he was physically able enough to do all sorts of physically demanding things around the house that were much more demanding that what was required in a job he said he couldn't do.

I have a neighbor just like that. He's around my age; 56 or so, but he never could work very much because he's a drunk. He would work construction jobs for a day or so and then quit after he earned enough drinking money for a couple of weeks.

So he claims, he hurt himself on a job he was doing, and hasn't worked after that. He lives with his mother as he has his entire life. She takes care of him for some reason. The guy doesn't drive and he has no bills to pay. But he constantly bothers his neighbors to loan him money for beer and booze. He spends his entire disability check on alcohol and cigarettes.

Because he and his mother fight all the time, he spends a lot of his time in the garage. There he has his stereo set up, some furniture, and has friends come over for drinking nights.....well days and nights to be honest. They don't work either.

Sounds like the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree with that clown.

The neighbor of mine was several years older than me. He was my parent's age or slightly older. When I was younger, I asked my mother why he didn't work. She said he considered physically disabled and claimed to have hurt his back on the job he claimed he couldn't do. Interesting part was that I remember seeing him paint his house, work on cars, and build a garage in his back yard all while being physically unable to do a job that involved much less physical demanding activity that doing what he did.

I think we must have the same neighbor.

When this guy was younger, he used to look like Hulk Hogan. He got kicked out of every bar in the area because he used to fight people all the time. I can't tell you how many times they arrested the asshole. I heard them talking about my neighbor on the police scanner a couple of times when they went to arrest him. They always sent out at least four cops because they feared him so much.

Yes he's older now and much more calmed down, but you never know what a guy like that. On several occasions he woke up in jail and never remembered a thing about how he got there.

 

[Conservative65]

Those children are the PARENT'S responsibility. Those mother made a choice with their body to have those children. If the choice is her, the responsibility is hers. If that single mother chose to have kids, she, by default, accepted the responsibility for supporting them. Since I didn't produce them, I didn't make the choice or accept the responsibility to do so.

My parents, both over 80, are elderly. They take care of themselves very well financially and otherwise. However, should they need something, it's my responsibility, not yours or anyone else's, to do so.

Truly disabled fits into the category of CAN'T. However, many of those on disability don't fit that. They simply don't want to work and have found a way to get around that responsibility. Had a neighbor growing up that was SUPPOSEDLY disabled enough physically that he couldn't do his job so he collected disability. Interesting thing was he was physically able enough to do all sorts of physically demanding things around the house that were much more demanding that what was required in a job he said he couldn't do.

I have a neighbor just like that. He's around my age; 56 or so, but he never could work very much because he's a drunk. He would work construction jobs for a day or so and then quit after he earned enough drinking money for a couple of weeks.

So he claims, he hurt himself on a job he was doing, and hasn't worked after that. He lives with his mother as he has his entire life. She takes care of him for some reason. The guy doesn't drive and he has no bills to pay. But he constantly bothers his neighbors to loan him money for beer and booze. He spends his entire disability check on alcohol and cigarettes.

Because he and his mother fight all the time, he spends a lot of his time in the garage. There he has his stereo set up, some furniture, and has friends come over for drinking nights.....well days and nights to be honest. They don't work either.

Sounds like the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree with that clown.

The neighbor of mine was several years older than me. He was my parent's age or slightly older. When I was younger, I asked my mother why he didn't work. She said he considered physically disabled and claimed to have hurt his back on the job he claimed he couldn't do. Interesting part was that I remember seeing him paint his house, work on cars, and build a garage in his back yard all while being physically unable to do a job that involved much less physical demanding activity that doing what he did.

I think we must have the same neighbor.

When this guy was younger, he used to look like Hulk Hogan. He got kicked out of every bar in the area because he used to fight people all the time. I can't tell you how many times they arrested the asshole. I heard them talking about my neighbor on the police scanner a couple of times when they went to arrest him. They always sent out at least four cops because they feared him so much.

Yes he's older now and much more calmed down, but you never know what a guy like that. On several occasions he woke up in jail and never remembered a thing about how he got there.

At the time I referenced, he was in his mid 40s. If he was alive today, he'd be mid 80s.

 

[danielpalos]

We have a federal doctrine and State laws regarding the legal concept of employment at will.

Unemployment compensation already happens. And, what better metrics for Firms; if the tax gets too high, they can just hire more people.

I'm waiting to see that. Yes we have unemployment INSURANCE. That means if you lose your job through no fault of your own, you get COMPENSATED for a short time while you are looking for new work. When you exhaust all your unemployment BENEFITS, you stop getting compensation checks.

Saying you should be able to collect compensation just because you don't feel like working anymore is like saying you can make a claim for an auto accident on your car even though you were never in an accident, or making a fire claim on your house even though you never had a fire. If people could do these things by law, no insurance company would provide such coverage.

The law is employment at will. Only illegals to the law, have a problem with it.

 

[ding]

We have a federal doctrine and State laws regarding the legal concept of employment at will.

Unemployment compensation already happens. And, what better metrics for Firms; if the tax gets too high, they can just hire more people.

I'm waiting to see that. Yes we have unemployment INSURANCE. That means if you lose your job through no fault of your own, you get COMPENSATED for a short time while you are looking for new work. When you exhaust all your unemployment BENEFITS, you stop getting compensation checks.

Saying you should be able to collect compensation just because you don't feel like working anymore is like saying you can make a claim for an auto accident on your car even though you were never in an accident, or making a fire claim on your house even though you never had a fire. If people could do these things by law, no insurance company would provide such coverage.

The law is employment at will. Only illegals to the law, have a problem with it.

Don't be so hard on unions. Unions have feelings too.

 

[danielpalos]

In his inaugural address President Trump said he would get people off welfare and back to work. He also mentioned rebuilding our infrastructure. I hope he is planning to make those on welfare and living in government housing go to work everyday painting curbs, fixing potholes, picking up trash, anything to earn their money. Also they should be drug tested for hard drugs. Coke, crack, meth, heroin, PCP, etc.

Even FDR knew that welfare was a subtle destroyer of man's spirit.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: Annual Message to Congress

"...The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fibre. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. It is inimical to the dictates of sound policy. It is in violation of the traditions of America. Work must be found for able-bodied but destitute workers...."

I guess that means, we should stop means testing until they get a real job.