We have talked quite a bit about welfare on this forum, so I thought I would share a couple choice quotes with you.

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.
- Benjamin Franklin, November 1766

Repeal that (welfare) law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. St. Monday and St. Tuesday, will soon cease to be holidays. Six days shalt thou labor, though one of the old commandments long treated as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing all your estates among them.
- Benjamin Franklin, letter to Collinson, May 9, 1753

Over 260 years and the liberals still haven't learned the truth that Franklin spoke so long ago. The more you give hand outs, the more you make people lazy, and the more people you'll draw into laziness. A hand up is temporary, a hand out is forever.

First of all: repubs have talked for MONTHS about defunding Obamacare by shutting down the govt; now it happens, and you think Obama did it???

The thing the American people are really starting to see is that the repub brand is at it's lowest level EVER!

See the Wall Street Journal of yesterday.

Why do you think Boehner is making proposals?

With poll numbers this low--and still sinking--the Dems have a valid chance to re-take the house. Two weeks ago, this was only a dream.

Not to worry Twardlow.... the pendulum always swings, and as soon as the average American begins to understand how ineffectual our government is and how much debt we have added to the balance sheets you folks will be in trouble. It is funny how you guys always want to argue about the small political BS and never want to take on the very real and large problems, those that threaten our nations very future, those that you will not address, because there are few solutions to those questions and your side holds on fevently to the wrong answers.

Money spent on welfare recipients exceeds average U.S. income

December 8, 2012 by Michael Dorstewitz


There’s an old saying: If you’re not going to get out of the car to help push, at least take your damn foot off the brake.

In this upside-down economy, the American taxpayer is pushing a car with its brakes fully engaged by welfare recipients.

The 2011 median household income was $50,054, or $137.13 per each day of the year. Assuming the breadwinner of this average household is an hourly employee working 40 hours a week and 50 weeks a year, that would put his pay scale at a shade over $25 an hour. Subtract withholding taxes and that wage-earner takes home about $22 for each hour worked.

As taxpayers, these are the ones pushing the car. Now, what about the riders?

According to a recently released Senate Budget Committee report, the total in benefits received — money, food stamps, housing, child care and the administrative costs to implement these programs — comes to a whopping $168 per day. If they were earning this sum, just like our average household breadwinner above — 40 hours a week for 50 weeks a year — their hourly wage would amount to almost $31 per hour.

Part of the problem is program redundancy.

Katie Pavlich, writing for Townhall, reported that the Congressional Research Service “identified roughly 80 overlapping federal means-tested welfare programs that together represented the single largest budget item in 2011 — more than the nation spends on Social Security, Medicare, or national defense. The total amount spent on these federal programs, when taken together with approximately $280 billion in state contributions, amounted to roughly $1 trillion.”

Not only can we expect things to get worse, the president is providing for it.

“Under the President’s FY13 budget proposal, means-tested spending would increase an additional 30 percent over the next four years,” Pavlich wrote.

In a recent article, liberal New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof made the following concession: “This is painful for a liberal to admit, but conservatives have a point when they suggest that America’s safety net can sometimes entangle people in a soul-crushing dependency. Our poverty programs do rescue many people, but other times they backfire.”

Again, I don’t mind pushing. I just want people to take their damn foot off the brake.
Read more at Townhall.

Welfare vs. working

Read it and weep Republicans:

--Only 24% of Americans had a favorable view of Republicans, the lowest figure in the poll’s multi-year history and four percentage points lower than last month. Another low: only 21% had a favorable view of the tea party.

--President Obama’s standing was relatively stable, the pollsters said, moving from 45% favorable last month to 47% now, within the poll’s margin of error of 3.5 points. Democrats overall were at 39% positive, with congressional Democrats at 36%.

--70% of Americans said Republicans were putting politics ahead of what was best for the country. A lesser 51% said that about Obama.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-nbc-wsj-poll-republican-shutdown-20131011,0,1301070.story