White House Official Seeks Welfare Changes

[Eugene]

White House Official Seeks Welfare Changes


Saturday November 26, 2005 8:16 AM

By KEVIN FREKING

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The administration's point man on tightening
welfare requirements says he senses that Congress is closer to making
significant changes to the program than at any time during President
Bush's tenure.

"I can almost taste it," said Wade Horn, an assistant secretary
within the Health and Human Services Department.

Democratic lawmakers don't believe Horn is correct, but say that
if he is, the overhaul will occur without bipartisan support.

Bush has proposed that participants work longer hours to maintain
eligibility for cash assistance and other forms of aid. He also wants
to raise the bar for states by requiring that a greater percentage of
their welfare population find work - or the states risk financial
penalties.

<snip>

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5439198,00.html

[Trillo]

1. Curious that it doesn't mention Corporate Welfare.

Ford would be the latest 'front door' applicant. Too many back door parasites, however.

Ever since Reagan, "tighten the belt."

What a friggin lie after lie after lie, over and over, again and again.

[laylah]

5. Just like the Bankruptcy Bill

didn't mention corporate bankruptcy. :mad:

Jenn

[depakid]

33. Nor did it go after the real abuse- Chapter 11

Of course, what did we expect?

Even the a lot of the Dems went along with the Republican agenda.

[cornermouse]

2. And their children?

Shall we also put them to work or shall we just ressurect the poor farms and make them work there?:sarcasm:

[etherealtruth]

16. I think that's ...

...included in a bill in the House:evilgrin:

[Arianrhod]

19. `Are there no prisons?' asked Scrooge.

`Plenty of prisons,' said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
`And the Union workhouses?' demanded Scrooge. `Are they still in operation?'
`They are. Still,' returned the gentleman, `I wish I could say they were not.'
`The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?' said Scrooge.
`Both very busy, sir.'
`Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,' said Scrooge. `I'm very glad to hear it.'

-- Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

[LibDemAlways]

23. I have no doubt that the repukes would

gladly introduce this proposal as a "solution" to the problem of pain-in-the-ass poor people and their children:

http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

39. LOL

Funny essay at your link.

[aquart]

3. Where is the part about creating jobs?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

4. The irony is astounding.

A bill to reduce welfare is going to be signed by a man who never worked a day in his life.

[Disturbed]

6. 3 more freakin' years of the RW Regime and there just may

be a class warfare.

[saigon68]

28. HE CAN'T WORK

It is a CHIMPANZEE

[flordehinojos]

7. is there even WELFARE anymore in this country?

We ought to make the pig out in Crawford who impostors himself as our president, work hard for the welfare and the pluses he gets from us through our tax supported white house deal.

make him pay it all back with 60 hour work weeks. no vacations. no security. no entitlement.

[truthisfreedom]

8. "I can almost taste it," (the shift of money to corporate welfare and the

resultant explosion of contributions to the thugs.)

[booksenkatz]

24. Dead children are always very tasty to Republicans. nt

[Nomen Tuum]

9. More "Faith-Ba$ed Preacher$" bought off?

Hey, why not get ordained by the Universal Life CHurch for free and then go for that Faith Based money?

Isn't it amazing that the party that once promised everyone a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage is now only interested in putting filet mignon on the table and a Rolls Royce in the garage of every preacher who sells out to them?

[xchrom]

10. of course they are -- republican constituents

hate the poor -- even if they are poor themselves.

they will be able to trumpet from the highest tower that they have struck another blow against the ever pernicious and ever dangerous ''welfare queen''.

[emanymton]

11. Welfare Queen = General Motors, Ford, Micr$oft, Halliburton etc.

[Vinca]

12. It's a sink or swim mentality only they aren't willing

to throw out a life preserver. On the surface it sounds fine: make people work a little more for benefits. The only problem is they end up stagnating in low wage, no advancement, no benefit jobs with no help or encouragement for any kind of better life. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know the American dream will never happen on Walmart wages.

[Geo55]

21. The American Dream according to George Carlin

"It's called the american dream because you have to be asleep to believe it." - George Carlin

[AndreaCG]

13. Where's the money for education?

Or child care? As usual, the Repukes want to create a permanent serf class.

[cap]

14. so the Katrina folks who are dumped somewhere

and cant find jobs will be hurt... shame... shame...

[kurth]

15. How about making the rich pay their fair share?

[SammyWinstonJack]

29. "Taxes are only for the little people" from tax cheat Leona Helmsley.

[stepnw1f]

17. Suck More Money from the Poor...

yessss... my precioussssss...

[grilled onions]

18. The Humanity!

Of nice of them to make sure they get their wages,benefits etc and THEN fret about how to pay for them by going after the most vulnerable of those in society. Have they any heart at all? I doubt it.

[Sapphire Blue]

20. Headline should be: "Neoconfederates Seek End to All FDR Policies"

[LibDemAlways]

22. I wouldn't be surprised at all to learn that

Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" is being seriously considered on Capitol Hill as a way to deal with the "problem" of the poor. Nothing repukes hate worse than those on the bottom rung of the economic ladder.

[DBoon]

25. They have to make public assistance so miserable

that even the worst job looks good in this economy.

[Child_Of_Isis]

26. Speaking of the welfare queens in congress...

``About 60 percent of persons on welfare in the last month did not do one hour of any activity related to work"


pot, kettle, black.

[ninkasi]

27. This is wrong for so many reasons...

While not sending other people's kids to fight their wars, Republicans practice another form of cruelty. It's played by trying to grind people into the dust as hard as they can. Corporations receive huge amounts of welfare, but no politician goes on record as saying that they are lazy, and need to learn better skills in order to keep the company going.

No, the cruelty is meted out to those least able to defend against it. Take the example of a girl from a poor, or only barely middle class family, who gets pregnant. Maybe the father of the child disappears, or won't face responsibility, or is abusive, and she's 16 or 17, and scared. We know conservatives don't want her to have an abortion, regardless of whether she wants to have the child or not.

They put so many stumbling blocks in her path, that let's say she has the child. Her parents can only do so much to help...they have other kids, maybe one of them just recently found a low-paying job after their previous one was sent overseas by one of the corporations her tax dollars helped subsidized...what does she do now?

Well, in the wonderful world of compassionate conservatism, she's expected to go out and find a job and support herself and her now born, therefore worthless from their point of view, child. She might get a GED, but her age and inexperience will make it very difficult for her to find a good job.

So what these wonderful, oh, so COMPASSIONATE conservatives want to do, in order to give more tax cuts to Paris Hilton, is to cut money available for Medicaid, school lunches, and her barely able to exist welfare check. Years later, maybe 16 or 17 or so, the son she gave birth to gets into the wrong crowd, she's too busy working 2 shitty jobs to spend as much time as she'd like with him, so he commits the crime of robbery, say.

The same wonderful people who made it all but impossible to terminate her pregnancy years ago, and forced her to take any job, and allowed companies to send good jobs overseas, now want to lock her kid up. Maybe he's caught with drugs, and he gets sent away for a long, long time. How much satisfaction does that give them, the so-called moral majority crowd, to congratulate themselves on being by-God tough on crime!

It will cost far more to imprison this young man for years than it would have to help his mother when he was first born, by providing her with an education, and decent housing, and medical care, until she was able to provide herself and her child with a decent standard of living.

Well, of course we need not be snippy, and point out that there is a lot of money to be made in warehousing people in for-profit prisons, but I feel snippy today. When I read garbage like this, and think of how cruel, and heartless, and shameless these conservatives are, I feel more than snippy. The people who consistently vote for these pigs are just as bad.

It is much, much more reasonable to invest money in people, in order to create a society which is stable, and compassionate, in the true sense of the word. There would be less crime, fewer serious health problems, and a much higher standard of living for the average citizen. It is odious that the government will shower billions of dollars on corporate welfare, and begrudge every cent of money spent on the less fortunate. Just judging by these standards makes our society a failure.

[feminazi]

31. great post, ninkasi

you said exactly what i was thinking and much more eloquently than i could have written.

the bottom line is that these greedy bastards only care about themselves. they really aren't concerned with the long term future of the country or its citizens. it's the "i got mine, screw you" mentality. and if they can make a buck off the backs of the poor, well who cares.

social darwinism is alive and well in the republican party.

:mad:

[Marthe48]

32. well said

I would rather give my tax dollars to that young woman than pay for the invasion of Iraq. I would rather give my tax dollars to her than pay the salary of the self-righteous POS's who think paying off deadbeat CEO's is more important than building a working society.

Government assistance can't be replaced by people helping people -- that's what we had before the French Revolution and judging from the horrible lives the poor had, compared to the wealthy, it didn't work and it drove the have-nots to destroy the haves.

[xxqqqzme]

36. there you go again,

being rational and using facts! rethugs do not respond 2 facts. Everything you posted makes all the sense in the world 2 all of us but rethugs would just stare as if you were seaking in a foreign tongue. My mother would not understand any of what you posted even tho she has a 4-time drug rehabbed grand-daughter, with TWO kids, who fits your narrative 2 a T.

[melody]

30. Eat the poor

Maybe that's what Horn can "almost taste".

What a sick bunch of degenerate, heartless sociopaths.

[depakid]

34. "I can almost taste it," said Wade Horn,

an assistant secretary within the Health and Human Services Department.

This is the real issue that underlies ALL Republican policies since Reagan. They put people into the agencies who don't believe in their mission- or they put in corrupt, incompetant cronies.

This should have been a major theme for the Dems for over 25 years, but (like the right to privacy that we're all about to lose) they've largely remained silent about it.

Most of these people have public statements, records and histories so contemptable to the average American, that it would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

[NashVegas]

35. If Welfare Recipients Have to Work Much Longer Hours

How long before more and more of the nation can qualify for Welfare?

[wordpix2]

37. stop BushCo corporate welfare, like US billions to Big Oil

[area51]

38. "...requiring that a greater percentage of their welfare pop. find work."

How? It's hard enough to find work if you're not on welfare now (I'm referring to discrimination). It's not as if a lot of jobs are being created in this economy.

[Gloria]

40. he can "almost taste it"---is Horn a human flesh eater???

eom

[BuelahWitch]

41. Yes, that's a rather sick way to use that phrase