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发帖数: 87 | 1 左棍如是说，该如何反驳？
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: “People who go on welfare stay on it forever.”
Fact: According to the site statisticbrain.com, the vast majority of Aid to
Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients (80.4%) receive benefits
for five years or less. AFDC is the program that seems to be most often
identified with the term “welfare.” AFDC programs were replaced at the
federal level by TANF in 1996, but it is still common to hear the program
referred to as AFDC.
Myth: “There’s a woman in Chicago. She has 80 names, 30 addresses, 12
Social Security cards. … She’s got Medicaid, getting food stamps and she
is collecting welfare under each of her names. Her tax-free cash income
alone is over $150,000″-Ronald Reagan
Fact: Ah, the “welfare queen.” Ronnie loved to tell his stories, and his
welfare queen story is one of the most popular. The only problem is, the
woman he talked about didn’t exist. There is some evidence that this story
may have been based on an actual woman, but her abuses were wildly
exaggerated by Reagan.
Myth: “Welfare recipients keep having more kids so they can get more
benefits.”
Fact: The most recent information I could find on this was from 1994, but I
seriously doubt that things have changed much since then. The average
family receiving AFDC at that time had 1.9 children, which was about the
same as the national average. (Here’s another site that has more
information about that.) I also found a chart showing the amount benefits
increase with additional children. Again, it’s old, from the 90′s, but
even doubling the amounts shown to allow for inflation, it is quite plain
that having additional children is NOT going to work out in the recipient’s
favor. I’m pretty sure adding a child to the family is going to cost a
lot more than the additional $100-200 (inflation adjusted from the chart)
that the child will bring in in benefits.
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.)
Myth: ”People collect welfare instead of work, and they get rich. They all
have iPhones, drive new cars, have widescreen tv’s, etc. I work and I can
’t afford any of that!”
Fact: Since welfare payments vary by state and by the size of the family,
it’s hard to provide all the pertinent numbers here, but here are some
ranges:
■A family of four can expect up to $500 a month in food stamp benefits. A
single person can expect an average of $200 a month.
■The average monthly allowance under TANF/AFDC is $900 for a family of
four. For a single person the average is about $300.
I’d love to hear what kind of “new car” they’re going to buy on that
income, or even an iPhone for that matter. (Remember, despite what Newt
Gingrich may have claimed, you can’t use food stamps for anything except
food, so when you’re figuring how much money someone might have for an
iphone or a car, take that money out of the equation.) It is also worth
observing that the people who sneer about welfare recipients having things
like that don’t take into consideration that the person may have had that
iPhone or car before having to go on welfare. My favorite criticism is of
supposed welfare recipients who have tattoos. Tattoos are permanent, folks!
How do you know that someone got a tattoo after starting to receive
welfare?
One final fact about welfare. Anybody want to take a guess on what the
single largest group on welfare in the United States is? It’s children.
The page in that link has some other interesting information as well. [My
apologies. The info in this link seems to have been moved and I have not
been able to find the new location.-WW]
So, there’s a lot of heat being provided by those comments and snarky
little posts with the ecards and everything. And when I read comments like
the one I saw posted by a friend of a friend about “big rims, grills, and
bling,” how am I not expected to think that some of this stems from racism?
(If that person had been my friend, they wouldn’t be now.)
As I always aim to do, hopefully this provides a little bit of light. |
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