Welfare recipients are going back to work...

Best news of the day!

The Trump administration moved Wednesday to reimpose work requirements for Americans on welfare, revoking an Obama-era policy that had urged states to apply for waivers exempting the poor from having to show they were either getting job training or looking for work.
Requiring work was a key part of the 1996 welfare reform law enacted by a GOP-led Congress and signed by then-President Clinton, and Mr. Trump’s move restores the law as written.

62% of illegal immigrant households receive welfare...

Anchor babies make welfare payments. 

Via Free Beacon:

More than half of households headed by immigrants in the county illegally, or 62 percent, received welfare benefits in 2012, according to a report released by the Center for Immigration Studies.
In the same time period, 49 percent of households headed by legal immigrants received welfare benefits, while 30 percent of households headed by natives received the same.
The report evaluates data from the Census Bureau and found that illegal immigrant households benefit mostly from food programs like food stamps and Medicaid through their native-born children.
“Welfare use by illegal immigrant households is certainly a concern, but the bigger issue is welfare use by legal immigrants,” said Steven Camarota, the Center’s director of research and author of the report. “Three-fourths of immigrant households using welfare are headed by legal immigrants.”
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Study: 51 percent of households headed by an immigrant (legal or illegal) received welfare in 2012...

Is anyone surprised by this study? Immigrant households (legal or illegal) should be banned from receiving welfare. We don't need to import welfare recipients. We have enough already.

This study is the first in recent years to examine immigrant (legal and illegal) and native welfare use using the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). While its complexity makes it difficult to use, the survey is widely regarded as providing the most accurate picture of welfare participation. The SIPP shows immigrant households use welfare at significantly higher rates than native households, even higher than indicated by other Census surveys.

• In 2012, 51 percent of households headed by an immigrant (legal or illegal) reported that they used at least one welfare program during the year, compared to 30 percent of native households. Welfare in this study includes Medicaid and cash, food, and housing programs.
• Welfare use is high for both new arrivals and well-established immigrants. Of households headed by immigrants who have been in the country for more than two decades, 48 percent access welfare.
• No single program explains immigrants’ higher overall welfare use. For example, not counting subsidized school lunch, welfare use is still 46 percent for immigrants and 28 percent for natives. Not counting Medicaid, welfare use is 44 percent for immigrants and 26 percent for natives.

Food stamp fraud...money sent to Yemen...

We need to increase the penalties for food stamp and welfare fraud. 

Via AL Com

A couple of steaks shoplifted at a Gardendale Walmart three months ago led to the biggest food stamp fraud investigation in Jefferson County’s history, and launched 11 simultaneous raids this morning at convenience stores countywide.
Led by the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office, teams of law enforcement officers met at 5 a.m. for a briefing and then fanned out across the county beginning at 6:50 a.m. The officers and agents were armed with 242 arrest warrants and plans to arrest 17 suspects.
All 17 suspects were in custody by mid-morning, and investigators already today have filed for forfeiture and condemnation of those 11 stores, which totals more than $1 million in assets.
“This is huge for us,” said Jefferson County District Attorney Brandon Falls.
The massive probe, dubbed Operation T-bone, targeted those they say have been cheating the food stamp system to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars and sending at least some of the profits via wire transfer to Yemen.[…]
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Revisiting drug testing welfare recipients: Was there really no savings?

Several states have tried to implement this on some level. but federal courts have struck it down. I fail to understand why I can be forced legally to take a drug test, but welfare recipients can't. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will overturn lower courts someday. Working folks shouldn't be held to a higher standard than those on the public dole. Interesting, you were severely misled by the mainstream media on state welfare recipient drug testing results. You may have heard it wasn't cost effective and only a miniscule percentage failed. Well, that isn't exactly correct. The numbers most cited are from Florida where drug testing for new welfare recipients took place in 2011, before a Federal Judge stopped it. The final numbers cited are 2.7% failed or failed to complete the test.

Via The New York Slimes:

From July through October in Florida — the four months when testing took place before Judge Scriven’s order — 2.6 percent of the state’s cash assistance applicants failed the drug test, or 108 of 4,086, according to the figures from the state obtained by the group. The most common reason was marijuana use. An additional 40 people canceled the tests without taking them.

Because the Florida law requires that applicants who pass the test be reimbursed for the cost, an average of $30, the cost to the state was $118,140. This is more than would have been paid out in benefits to the people who failed the test, Mr. Newton said.

As a result, the testing cost the government an extra $45,780, he said.

And the testing did not have the effect some predicted. An internal document about Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, caseloads stated that the drug testing policy, at least from July through September, did not lead to fewer cases.

“We saw no dampening effect on the caseload,” the document said.

Strangely, or not so strangely, the NY Timers never cites the number who refused to take the test. Instead, they cite an undocumented  "internal document" that claims the they did not have fewer cases. AP reported those numbers via CBS here.

Nearly 1,600 applicants have refused to take the test since testing began in mid-July, but they aren't required to say why. Thirty-two applicants failed the test and more than 7,000 have passed, according to the Department of Children and Families. The majority of positives were for marijuana.

If you add the 18% refused to the 2.7% that failed, it comes to a 20% reduction in caseloads and spending. That clearly is a savings. Federal Courts need to either allow welfare drug testing or completely eliminate drug testing for everyone. They look like a bunch of liberal hypocrites at the moment.

Central American immigrants twice as likely to be on at least one form of public assistance

Liberals don't care. they want everyone on public assistance.

Via Breitbart:

More than half of legal and illegal immigrant households from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are on at least one form of public assistance, according to an analysis of government data by a limited immigration group.

Based on the Census Bureau’s March 2013 Current Population Survey, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) reports that most legal and illegal immigrant heads of households from these three countries received benefits from at least one major benefit program like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), food stamps (SNAP), free/reduced lunch, public/subsidized housing, and/or Medicaid.

Some 57 percent of households headed by an El Salvadoran used one such major welfare program, as did 54 percent of Honduran households and 49 percent of Guatemalan households. By comparison, 24 percent of households headed by a native-born American used at least one of these programs.

While the welfare use among immigrants from these countries is higher, their levels of employment are about on par with native-born Americans.

Alabama Legislature approves welfare drug testing for applicants with previous drug convictions...

I have had to pass a drug test several times to keep my current job. Most people have to pass a drug test when being hired. Welfare recipients are being employed by us taxpayers to take care of their children. That's a job and they should have to pass a drug test like the rest of us.

Via FOX10:

The Alabama Legislature has approved a bill to drug test welfare applicants who have had drug convictions within the last five years.
The House of Representatives voted 73-27 for the bill Thursday. It now goes to Gov. Robert Bentley for his signature.
A person could keep their benefits after one positive drug test. After a second positive, the person would be ineligible for one year. The recipient would be permanently ineligible after a third positive drug test.
Republican Rep. Kerry Rich told lawmakers he wanted to make sure people weren't using benefits to buy drugs.
Opposed lawmakers said the tests would cost the state money but accomplish little. The state already bans people with felony drug convictions from collecting benefits under Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.

Obvious: Colorado welfare recipients withdrawing cash at weed shop ATM's

High times...

Via NRO:

During the first month of Colorado’s experiment with legal marijuana, welfare beneficiaries withdrew thousands of dollars in public-assistance cash from ATMs at weed shops, according to records obtained by National Review Online.
At least 64 times, public-assistance benefits were accessed at businesses selling marijuana. A total of $5,475 in public benefits was withdrawn at ATMs in establishments that sell pot. This figure includes medicinal dispensaries, recreational stores and at least one place that combines the two. Some of these establishments sell groceries as well as pot, so there is no way to know exactly how much welfare money was spent on marijuana.
The amounts withdrawn ranged from $20 to $400, averaging $85.55, according to the transaction records. In Colorado, the average household receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits includes one adult and two children, and the maximum monthly benefit for them is $462.
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Sen. Mike Lee is trying to put the work requirement back into welfare...

Sen. Mike Lee will be called an extremist and racist in 3...2...1...

Via The DC

Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee is trying to get more work into welfare.
On Wednesday, Lee introduced a bill that would restore the monthly work requirements for food stamps that President Obama suspended in 2009 with the stimulus. Lee’s legislation will also attempt to get control over welfare spending and provide more transparency by placing caps on annual means-tested program spending and requiring states to report spending levels.
“Poverty is not just the absence of money, but also the absence of opportunity,” Lee said. “Today’s poverty programs place artificial restraints on those who are trying to get ahead, build careers and provide better lives for themselves and their families. Successful welfare programs are those that make poverty more temporary, not more tolerable, and we need to move current policy in that direction.”
The “Welfare Reform and Upward Mobility Act” is currently cosponsored by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter, and Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe.
Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan has a companion bill in the House.
“It’s sad to see one of the two major parties step over the line and say it’s good when people work less,” Jordan said Monday of the effort to bring more work to welfare, arguing Democrats have embraced a work less approach to assistance.

Colorado Democrats reject ban on using welfare cards at pot shop ATM's

What are democrats in Colorado smoking? Oh...

DENVER (AP) — Saying some neighborhoods have more pot shops than banks, Colorado Democrats on Wednesday rejected a proposal to ban the use of public assistance cards to obtain cash at marijuana-shop ATMs
The Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee voted 3-2 along party lines against a GOP proposal to add marijuana shops to the list of places where recipients of public assistance can’t use their government-issued EBT cards to access cash.
The list already includes casinos, liquor stores and gun shops.

Welfare better than minimum wage in 35 states...

Welfare pays better than a starting teacher's salary in 10 states...

Via Washington Examiner:

Federal welfare benefits pay more than minimum wage jobs in 35 states, according to a new report from the Cato Institute.

Hawaii provides the most benefits, or $49,175 a year. The District of Columbia provides the second highest welfare benefits in the country, providing $43,099 a year.

Cato’s calculations were based upon how much a mother with two children would receive from the seven most widely used welfare programs, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; Medicaid; Women, Infants and Children Program; Emergency Food Assistance Program; housing assistance and utilities assistance.

In 12 states and D.C., the amount she would receive from those programs exceeds what she could earn working full-time at a $15-an-hour job, according to Cato.

In 10 states and D.C., welfare benefits pay more than the first year, pretax salary for a teacher. 

Unlikely: Michelle Obama claims Barack Obama is working to make Americans free from dependence on government...

Obama is the food stamp president....

Via CNS News:

In an e-mail to supporters, First Lady Michelle Obama says she grew up in a family that didn't need help from the government, and that her husband is working to make Americans free from dependence on government once again.
In her message sent yesterday from democratparty@democrats.org, Mrs. Obama says:
"When I was growing up, a family like mine -- living on my hard-working father's salary at the city water plant -- could build a solid life without much debt and without relying on any form of public assistance. Today, for too many families, that American promise is no longer within reach.
"Barack is working to fix that and he needs solid Democrats in Congress to help him."

Poll: 65 percent of Democrats oppose giving welfare benefits to illegals under Gang Of Eight Immigration Bill…

Chuckie Schumer and Marco Rubio hardest hit...

Via Washington Examiner:

Majorities of Americans may tell pollsters they support the idea of giving citizenship to illegal immigrants, but a new poll from National Journal suggests that may change as they are better informed about what the immigration legislation currently being debated in Congress really does.
According to the latest United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll, 77 percent of Americans oppose giving government benefits, like food stamps and Medicaid, to illegal immigrants before they become citizens. Not only do 90 percent of Republicans oppose such a policy, but 65 percent of Democrats do as well.
Unfortunately for supporters of the Schumer-Rubio immigration legislation, that is exactly what the bill does according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Keep on reading…

Video: Illegal Immigrant Mother of Seven Given Food Stamps, Meds, Housing, and Social Security...

This is very common and will make you angry. Just wait until the Gang of Eight Immigration Reform Bill explodes taxpayer abuse...

2009 memo shows Obama wanted to gut welfare work requirement from day one...

The whole 'responding to the needs of the states' justification was a load of crap.

Via Heritage:

President Obama had been seeking ways to circumvent the 1996 welfare work requirements since coming to office, according to a 2009 memo released Tuesday by Representative David Camp (R–MI) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R–UT).

“From the first year the Obama Administration took power, it was trying to find any legal and policy justification to permit the weakening of welfare reforms that demand work in exchange for government benefits,” said Hatch in a press release on Tuesday. “They used states’ desire for flexibility as a stalking horse to justify this massive executive branch power grab.”

Last July, Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services released an official policy directive effectively gutting work requirements from the successful welfare reform of 1996. The Administration claimed it was simply responding to states’ requests for flexibility to implement innovations. However, the memo released Tuesday shows that the White House was actively looking to waive the work requirements much earlier—and that the Administration “sought authority to waive much more than just work requirements.”

“I’ve been more than a little skeptical of the Obama Administration’s argument that they were purely responding to the needs of the states when they unilaterally chose to undermine welfare work requirements, and this memo confirms my skepticism,” said Hatch.

The five-page memo, with the author’s name redacted, attempts to legally justify waiving welfare work requirements. But Obama has no such legal authority. Heritage expert Andrew Grossman writes:

Keep on reading…

Disgraceful: Speed bump and family got $100,000 in welfare benefits...

Taxpayers financed these Jihadist wannabees for years...

Via The Boston Herald:

The Tsarnaev family, including the suspected terrorists and their parents, benefited from more than $100,000 in taxpayer-funded assistance — a bonanza ranging from cash and food stamps to Section 8 housing from 2002 to 2012, the Herald has learned.

“The breadth of the benefits the family was receiving was stunning,” said a person with knowledge of documents handed over to a legislative committee today.

The state has handed over more than 500 documents to the 11-member House Post Audit and Oversight Committee, which today met for the first time and plans to call in officials from the Department of Transitional Assistance to testify.

Stupid: Mass. Gov. Patrick locks down Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s government benefits info because dead terrorist has a right to privacy...

Are all liberals this stupid?

Via The Boston Herald:

The Patrick administration clamped down the lid yesterday on Herald requests for details of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s government benefits, citing the dead terror mastermind’s right to privacy.

Across the board, state agencies flatly refused to provide information about the taxpayer-funded lifestyle for the 26-year-old man and his brother and accused accomplice Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19.

On EBT card status or spending, state welfare spokesman Alec Loftus would only say Tamerlan Tsarnaev, his wife and 3-year-old daughter received benefits that ended in 2012. He declined further comment.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signs welfare drug testing bill into law...

I had to take a drug test to get my job. Most jobs that pay anything require a drug test. If welfare and unemployment recipients can't pass a drug test, it is unlikely they can get off the government gravy train. Look for liberals to quickly launch a lawsuit claiming this is unfair and discriminatory.

Kansas.com — Calling drug addiction a “scourge in Kansas,” Gov. Sam Brownback signed into law Tuesday a bill to test welfare and unemployment recipients suspected of using illegal drugs.

“This is a horrific thing that hits so many people,” he said. “What this effort is about is an attempt to get ahead of it and, instead of ignoring the problem, start treating the problem.”

The drug testing bill lets the Department for Children and Families require urine tests of any welfare recipient suspected of using illegal drugs. That could be triggered by a person’s demeanor, missed appointments or police records.

Opponents of the bill said that may leave the decision open to people’s biases. But the bill was swiftly approved by the House 106-16 and backed by the Senate on a 29-9 vote.
Senate Vice President Jeff King, R-Independence, called it “the most treatment-focused drug testing bill in the entire country.”

The North Carolina House Passes HB 392 Requiring Background Checks For Welfare And Food Stamp Recipients

Liberals are going crazy (short trip) over a North Carolina bill that requires background checks for food stamps. The idea is to bar applicants and recipients with outstanding warrants or other active violations from welfare and food stamp programs. What's wrong with that goal? There is a good argument the law doesn't go far enough. What about drug testing welfare recipients? I have had to face a drug test to get my paycheck. Why shouldn't welfare recipients have to face one to get their free handout from the taxpayers?

People seeking federal assistance in North Carolina are one step closer to being forced to undergo background checks in order to get the help they need. The North Carolina House passed HB 392 by a final vote of 106-6 on Thursday. The bill now goes to the Senate.

Introduced last week by Republicans, HB 392 mandates that all people applying for federal aid such as food assistance must undergo a background check, which the North Carolina Association of County Boards of Social Services says would likely dissuade individuals and families from seeking help because “if people think they are going to be prosecuted or arrested for even seeking our services, that’s a big concern for us.”

In other words, poor people with children who desperately need food may be too frightened to seek help. This bill targets the poor unfairly, and forcing them to have a background check is humiliating, especially when most people on welfare feel bad about needing assistance in the first place. More crazy liberal opinion here...

Rasmussen: 64% of American Adults think there are too many Americans dependent on the government

The other 36% are largely dependent on the government and happy with the situation...

Via Rasmussen:

Americans continue to believe that too many of their fellow citizens are financially dependent on the government, but they’re less critical of programs to help the poor.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 64% of American Adults think there are too many Americans dependent on the government for financial aid. Only eight percent (8%) believe not enough Americans are dependent on this aid, while 17% feel the level of dependency is about right. Eleven percent (11%) are not sure.