Eeew! I'd rather go on welfare and stay

• Well, here ya go folks! - this sickens me.............sm
  • Eeew! I'd rather go on welfare and stay - right where I am. They can have India!
  • It's just too easy -- the idea that keeping American jobs in America actually helping the economy - Lu
  • they can afford them over there, just not to employ - them here.........

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I took my first MT job in 1974 when we were still respected hospital employees with benefits.  In 1976 I had my first child and in 1980 I became a singe parent.  Between 1974 and 1992, I worked between 40 and 50 hours every single week of my life, worked all holidays because I needed the extra pay and had an interval between 1986 and 1993 where I did not take one single vacation day because I bought a home to get my son away from the gang problems that became concentrated in apartment complexes.  During those years, I developed hypertension at age 34 and progressive, unrelenting back pain in 1987.  With the help of ibuprofen and regular exercise, I worked through it and never skipped a beat.  For those who may not remember, 1986 was when outsourcing happened and in the years to follow, not one single start-up MTSO offered medical benefits.    

In 1992 I began to develop significant insomnia due to the chronic pain.  One morning, after tossing and turning through the night, I got out of bed and found myself unable to stand erect because of the pain.  For the next week or so, I had to crawl around on my hands and knees and was unable to work.  I got behind in my bills, depressed and was utterly exhausted.  I had a physical and "nervous" breakdown that landed me in a psychiatric facility where I received much needed rest and treatment.  I couldn't afford to pay that bill.    

I lost my car, my job and my house.  My son had to go to live with his father since I could not feed him and at age 40 I had to move back in with my aging mother.  I tried to apply for social security disability just long enough to get job retraining and get back on my feet again.  I was denied those benefits.  I applied for unemployment and food stamps and entered the county medical health care system.  I was not able to achieve rehabilitation and recovery sufficient to enable me to return to transcription.  I ended up out of work for 7 years while I figured out my own rehabilitation and lived with my elderly mother who could not really afford to support the extra expense of feeding me on a fixed social security/retirement income.  My unemployment benefits ran out, but I stayed on food stamps for 3 of those years for her sake until I returned to school on a student loan and later on scholarship.  When mhy mother's health deteriorated, I became her terminal care attendant and had to leave school.   

I am no slacker.  It took me 7 years to recover from the disability I sustained from medical transcription and single parenthood.  When I was able to return to work, I did.  I still transcribe and at age 59, have developed the same back problems I had that disabled me in 1993.  I am simply trying to scratch my way to retirement, which probable will commence for me one I drop dead in front of the computer.  I would not wish this fate on anyone, but if any of you, your family or your friends ever do encounter such circumstances for whatever reason, (i.e., death of a spouse, for example) and need assistance, you will come to understand the importance of welfare and will never view it with the cold-blooded, icy, self-righteous indignation that some on this board have expressed. 

needed a little bit of help at a rough time in their lives. It was not intended to cover those who have teeny excuses as to why they can't (won't) work. I see it in our community. Projects with gas guzzler newer cars than mine.

I drive a ྙ Buick LeSabre when hubby doesn't work.  We bought that car for "free"; i.e., a friend gave us a calender for Christmas with daily numbers on it. On December 29, 2 days after my car died, our number came up and we won $100. The car cost exactly $100, blown engine, so we took the engine from my car that would not pass inspection and placed it in the $100 (free) car. We made a profit because I found $.03 cents when cleaning out the car. LOL

If I can live with a car like this, why can't they?  They buy brand new or next to new. My car has 150,000 miles on it and still going strong. The engine only had 84,000 miles on it, so it will live a little longer. In the meantime, we're looking for another decent deal just in case. Do they? No, they get a new car every couple years.

What I'm trying to say is that they shouldn't be in government-subsided housing if they can afford a new car or a car that is only a couple years old. You didn't see that years ago. They drove what I'm driving now. 

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I studied social work and worked at children services. Welfare amounts to $115 a month for an adult which said adult has to work 40 hours for (at least in my state - Ohio). If you have small children - you do not have to work the 40 hours until they are in school. You do get food stamps. Some live in "projects" with reduced rent. You might qualify for home heating assistance in the winter (most times it will not cover the entire bill). If you get on a percentage of income plan on your electric - you still have to pay the whole bill at some point in time - it just keeps adding up. Welfare accounts for less than 15% of the income taxes we pay, politicians would like you to think it is a lot more. Welfare is no picnic - it sux. The mentally ill who are homeless cannot collect any type of benefits as they have no address (smart guy, that Reagan). If we wish to be a "community" then we must extend a helping hand to those who are less unfortunate than the rest of us.

A high-profile, corporate take-over attorney had the good life and was ruthless in his job and did it very well. Every day he had to step over this wino lying on a heat vent on the sidewalk when he walked to his office. He despised that wino. Freakin' bum. One day that attorney had a massive heart attack. He almost didn't make it. He claimed to have had a near death experience in which he was told by Jesus that the bum he stepped over every day had chosen that as his lot in life before birth so as to teach the attorney some humility and compassion. The attorney never forgot this "dream" when he recovered from his heart attack. He devoted the rest of his life advocating for the poor and walked away from all the trappings of his "elitist" life. True story - cannot validate it at this moment.

Welfare Reform Reauthorized

Healthy Marriage, Fatherhood Initiative Approved; Work Requirement Strengthened

Today, President George W. Bush signed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which reauthorizes the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program administered by HHS’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF).

"The reauthorization of the TANF program takes the next step in welfare reform by strengthening work requirements and providing the assistance families need to climb the career ladder," HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said. "Welfare reform is helping millions of people climb out of poverty. Now, we want to go the next step and help them climb the job ladder by creating more opportunities for education and job training."

The new law maintains the same 50 percent work participation requirement for states as before. However, prior to today’s reauthorization, a caseload reduction credit allowed states to reduce their work requirement by their caseload decline since 1996. As most states experienced dramatic caseloads declines, the credit had virtually eliminated the work participation requirements for most states.

Today's reauthorization recalibrates the base year for calculating the caseload reduction credit and also closes a loophole to include separate state programs in the work calculation. These changes effectively re-implement a meaningful state work participation rate requirement as envisioned by the architects of welfare reform back in 1996.

"The reauthorization of welfare reform, with its strengthened state work participation rate requirement, supports the Bush Administration's goal of ending the crippling cycle of welfare dependency," said HHS Assistant Secretary for Children and Families, Wade F. Horn, Ph.D. "Welfare reform is a success because more families and individuals are working and entering the economic mainstream and fewer children are growing up in poverty."

Today's reauthorization includes $150 million to support programs designed to help couples form and sustain healthy marriages. Up to $50 million of this amount may be used for programs designed to encourage responsible fatherhood. In its welfare reform law of 1996, Congress stipulated three of the four purposes of the TANF block grant to states be related to promoting healthy marriages.

"A key component of welfare reform is supporting healthy marriages and responsible fatherhood," Dr. Horn added. “Approval of these funds will help to achieve welfare reform's ultimate goal: improving the well-being of children."

The Healthy Marriage Initiative, administered by ACF, was created in 2002 by President Bush to help couples who have chosen marriage gain greater access to marriage education services, on a voluntary basis, where they can acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to form and sustain a healthy marriage. Funding for responsible fatherhood includes initiatives to help men be more committed, involved and responsible fathers, and the development of a national media campaign to promote responsible fatherhood.

The welfare reauthorization provisions also made several improvements to the child support enforcement program, including a change that will provide more support directly to families, especially those who have left welfare.

For more information on the Healthy Marriage Initiative, view: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/healthymarriage/.

And for those that say you HAVE to work to get welfare,...... NO YOU DON'T!  I see that waaaay too much where I live...... mostly just generation after generation living off ME!!!!  So, MORE government is just FINE with them!!

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=578936

Today on the conservative board, there were 10 new posts, and not ONE LIBERAL posted any of them.

Today on the liberal board, there were 20 new conservative posts.

20 to 0.

Obviously they find their own board boring since they posted twice as many posts here as they did on their own board.  But then we already knew that, didn't we?

As if Arkansas doesn't have enough of the creatures already, they released a bunch of rattlesnakes and copperheads  in Devil's Den State Park a few years back and that's not too far for them to slither up this way.  Those varmits are most definitely not timid and I fear to go outside at night without a flashlight lest I encounter one of them..