Kicking the poor

If only the truth made a dent.

Myth: ”People on welfare are lazy and sit at home collecting it while the rest of us work to support them.”
Fact: The welfare reform law that was signed by President Clinton in 1996 largely turned control over welfare benefits to the states, but the federal government provides some of the funding for state welfare programs through a program called Temporary Assistance For Needy Families (TANF). TANF grants to states require that all welfare recipients must find work within two years of first receiving benefits. This includes single parents, who are required to work at least 30 hours per week. Two parent families are required to work 35 to 50 hours per week. Failure to obtain work could result in loss of benefits. It is also worth noting that thanks to the pay offerings of companies such as Walmart, many who work at low wage jobs qualify for public assistance, even though they work full time.
Now I can’t speak to the issue of whether welfare recipients want to work, but the law gives them no choice; within two years they have to find work or face losing benefits. This fact about welfare was what Mitt Romney brought up during the campaign when he claimed that President Obama was going to get rid of the work requirements for welfare, which was a lie. Several governors, including the Republican governors of Utah and Nevada, requested a waiver of the work requirement for various reasons.
Myth: ”I see these guys all the time, hanging out and drinking, and doing drugs, collecting welfare instead of working.”
Fact: The able bodied single male with no dependent children who collects welfare in the United States pretty much does not exist, since the primary goal of most welfare programs is to provide temporary support for children and families. Single males can receive certain benefits, such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) if they are disabled.
Myth: “Most welfare recipients are minorities.”
Fact: While I am not sure why this should even be a concern, other than because of racism, percentage-wise roughly the same number of whites are on welfare as blacks. (38.8% of welfare recipients are white, 39.8% are black) The percentages of Hispanics and Asians on welfare are much lower (15.7% Hispanic, 2.4% Asian. So much for the right wing claim that “illegals” come to the U.S. and collect welfare benefits.)
 

 Then there is the enduring myth of red state "rugged individualism" and "self-reliance." No matter how many times this one gets blown out of the water, somehow it never dies. The fact of the matter is that the more enlightened blue states have been carrying the deadbeat red staters for a long time.

The United States just had an election, if anything was decided it should be that the hateful and often blatantly racist "conservatives" do not speak for the country. For all the money behind rmoney and his band of thieves, there simply are not enough Americans willing to spit on the poor, crush foreigners, and rip the Union apart. Only repeated rebukes and defeats will ever bring them to heel enough to stop causing so much trouble. I can only hope that the future has an America made of people who may disagree but can do it without threatening violence and secession any time they do not get their way. The alternative is just too dire to contemplate.