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Welfare recipient says why work, it's free money


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"An Austin welfare recipient tells Austin’s Morning News she gets a lot of welfare money and can stay home and smoke weed. Listen to her phone call earlier today on the show with Mark, Ed and Sam…

Lucy is 32 with three kids. She is on welfare just like her parents and admits her kids will do the same. She says taxpayers are the fools…she gets to lay up all day and smoke weed while you go to work."

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Right. That's not a staged call.

I agree . But this is the type of good citizen that the current administration wants to see. They know this is the only way they can stay in power the more of them they can produce the longer they will be in charge and the more control they can have over everyone’s freedoms.

Everyday Obama remains in power is an insult to the constitution and freedom. He has done more to hurt this country in the time he has been in office then all of the other Muslims in history combined

Edited by HeavyDuty
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Like it or not, this attitude is pretty easy to fall into (whether the call is real or not).  The system is just set up to do this.  Even folks I've met who work part time and take home unemployment tell me they have to be careful not to work too many hours and lose their unemployment benefits.  It's a catch-22, either you don't help people who truly need temporary help enough, or your create a world where if you were 5 more hours per week your income drops $100s and create incentive to be "underemployed" for the maximum length of time you're eligible for unemployment.  I think we're far too much erring towards the latter.

Edited by smashweights
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I love this sentence....

I know Barack Obama is a Christian. Rumors that he is or was a Muslim are false, and have been debunked by many fact-checking websites. BUT

Welfare is what it is and will never change we all have to live with it and sorry for highjacking this thread.

Edited by HeavyDuty
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Welfare is what it is and will never change we all have to live with it and sorry for highjacking this thread.

 

There will always be people that will scam the system, no matter what system or safeguards you put in place. We still have to help the unfortunate, each other, those in need.....this is still America. The proper response to the call above is to have the NSA check their phone records and see who made that call. Then go see them and put them in jail if indeed the caller was real.

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I know Barack Obama is a Christian. Rumors that he is or was a Muslim are false, and have been debunked by many fact-checking websites. BUT

Welfare is what it is and will never change we all have to live with it and sorry for highjacking this thread.

 

The only people who care "what the president's religion is" are right wing nutjobs....

 

Yes, there are people who abuse the system...

 

My opinion? let them, if squeaking by on their $22,000 per year in benefits is a fulfilling life for them, so be it. I've got larger ambitions, and I'd rather not have them competing for the same opportunities I'm after anyway. 

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There will always be people that will scam the system, no matter what system or safeguards you put in place. We still have to help the unfortunate, each other, those in need.....this is still America. The proper response to the call above is to have the NSA check their phone records and see who made that call. Then go see them and put them in jail if indeed the caller was real.

 

 

 

naaaaahhhhhh

 

drone strike

Edited by jbot
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My opinion? let them, if squeaking by on their $22,000 per year in benefits is a fulfilling life for them, so be it. I've got larger ambitions, and I'd rather not have them competing for the same opportunities I'm after anyway.

I don’t think you will ever have anything to worry about or your kids either they are training their kids to take over the family business But wouldn’t it be nice to get a $22.000 dollar bonus every year on top of your pay.

Your truly a Right Wing Nutjob

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I don’t think you will ever have anything to worry about or your kids either they are training their kids to take over the family business But wouldn’t it be nice to get a $22.000 dollar bonus every year on top of your pay.

Your truly a Right Wing Nutjob

 

I don't see it as a bonus, I see it as a salary cap.... and if those people are willing to live under that salary cap, I'm not of a mind to take it away from them.

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I think the whole system is BS and needs straight revamped from top to bottom.  Not saying do away with it, but needs way more restrictions and requirements to function as it was intended.

 

Will we ever see anything change, nope, no chance.  Too many people use and abuse it to ever allow any kid of vote or person who might change it into office. 

 

Favorite story was my wife in home healthcare when she first got out of grad school.  Went to a house in the hilltop area, had 6 kids, mother and grandmother both on welfare, baby's daddy on welfare, said they had to be to take care of that many kids.  It was this time of the year, the Christmas tree was surrounded by gifts, wrapped, and more than she could count.

 

She came back to our house and we had about 5 gifts under the tree, living with a pretty solid combined income.  It isn't just welfare, there are so many other handouts out there that are abused it is unreal.  Even private food banks like from churches etc.  I know stories about people who show up to car shows my dad goes to with 3 cars, not 1 but 3, then Monday following the show they are at the food bank getting their food for the week.  FACT.

 

Oh and I blame Clinton for all of this, not sure why, but because I can.  Wait, maybe Sarah Palin is the person who needs blamed, or Ronald Regan?  Abe Lincoln?  Yeah, whoever.

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I think the whole system is BS and needs straight revamped from top to bottom.  Not saying do away with it, but needs way more restrictions and requirements to function as it was intended.

 

Oh and I blame Clinton for all of this, not sure why, but because I can.  Wait, maybe Sarah Palin is the person who needs blamed, or Ronald Regan?  Abe Lincoln?  Yeah, whoever.

 

I couldn't agree more about your first line - this from a social progressive and fiscal moderate.  There are people who justifiably need it (elderly, children and the legitimately infirmed), and some I don't mind getting public assistance for a time, if it's the right kind and actually teaches them to fish, but there are others who abuse the system and I'm not cool with paying them to drink, drug, screw and laze around.

 

In my view, anyone who polarizes this debate into "Democrats are socialist weasels out to put everyone on the dole to control our bodily fluids" or "Republicans are cruel, selfish bastards who would rather see the unwashed die en-mas than give 14c extra for a pizza" are helping to maintain this policy impasse and thus status quo.  The situation is a lot more complex and subtle than that, and is going to take sophisticated approaches to solve it.

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The only people who care "what the president's religion is" are right wing nutjobs....

Yes, there are people who abuse the system...

My opinion? let them, if squeaking by on their $22,000 per year in benefits is a fulfilling life for them, so be it. I've got larger ambitions, and I'd rather not have them competing for the same opportunities I'm after anyway.

$22,000....for contrast an e3 in the service makes about $17,000. Drafting these bums would be cheaper.

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FWIW I Would take 22K to sit on my arse all day everyday, anyday of my life.  Except I can't stoop to that level.  If it was all I could do i.e. quad or para and couldn't do anything else, then yes, I would.  And I would drink and smoke like it was going out of style.

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I think we can all agree that the system is in need of reform, if not a complete overhaul, but I have to ask a rather simple predicate question:

 

How many of us can honestly say we fully understand the welfare benefits program?  We all understand it in broad terms.  You make below $X, and you receive $Y in benefits each month, with an additional $Z amount per child.   But i'm asking who among us actually knows what those numbers are, and what other qualifications are necessary to receive that money.

 

Only after we gain that knowledge can we formulate an objective opinion on whether or not the amounts are too high, and the requirements too low.

 

Then you have to take the next step and define "essential purchases" and (IMHO) limit welfare funds to those items. 

 

One of the largest issues I see right now is an (apparent or alleged) lack of motivation to get off welfare.  You can address that in a number of ways, some of which are more brutal than others...  Reducing benefits is one way, but that punishes people who aren't abusing the system just as much as those who are.  Changing the structure is another strategy.  Stricter requirements to be eligible for welfare would be my suggestion, but without knowing the current requirements, it's hard to say that with a straight face. When proving you're poor becomes more work than actual work, a job doesn't look so bad. 

 

We've proven over and over that we can't make people want more for themselves in the current welfare structure.

Edited by redkow97
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How many of us can honestly say we fully understand the welfare benefits program?  We all understand it in broad terms.  You make below $X, and you receive $Y in benefits each month, with an additional $Z amount per child.   But i'm asking who among us actually knows what those numbers are, and what other qualifications are necessary to receive that money..

 

I agree with this very much.  It would be a huge job to unwind all the byzentine rules and thresholds for these programs, but thankfully a few different studies have done just that.  Heritage did a fantastic study recently where they computed the effective marginal tax rates of low-income workers, accounting for the phaseout of benefits, and  showed a huge disincentive to work through a few ranges of income levels.  Particularly between $10,000-$25,000.

 

Im trying to hyperlink to the image, but if their site doesnt allow it follow the link below to the writeup.

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/01/effective-marginal-tax-rates-for-low-income-workers-are-high

post-17372-0-49224400-1386010231_thumb.g

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$22,000....for contrast an e3 in the service makes about $17,000. Drafting these bums would be cheaper.

 

FWIW I Would take 22K to sit on my arse all day everyday, anyday of my life.  Except I can't stoop to that level.  If it was all I could do i.e. quad or para and couldn't do anything else, then yes, I would.  And I would drink and smoke like it was going out of style.

 

17,000 would be 1416/month, I don't see any pay here that low...

http://www.militaryfactory.com/military_pay_scale.asp

 

22k is higher than an entry level enlisted, but not by much, and 22k includes all of their free benefits (phone, housing, food) it's not 22k in addition to all of those things (as with military benefits)...

 

Now, if you think you could be happy on 22k/year, that's your perogative. 

 

Myself, I was getting almost that ($18,200) per year for the few months I was unemployed, and it was not fun. I had to scrape and borrow to make my house payment and bills, I went stir crazy sitting at home all the time, and I didn't have any money left over to do anything else....

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I don’t think you will ever have anything to worry about or your kids either they are training their kids to take over the family business But wouldn’t it be nice to get a $22.000 dollar bonus every year on top of your pay.

Your truly a Right Wing Nutjob

Mags a RWNJ?   Never thought I'd see anyone post that.   LOL. 

Edited by YSR_Racer_99
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Mags a RWNJ?   Never thought I'd see anyone post that.   LOL. 

 

 

well, grammatically he told me that he was my "truly a Right Wing Nutjob" not that I was "truly a Right Wing Nutjob"

 

Your vs You're

 

Your shows possession.

Your car was parked by your house, but is now in your swimming pool.

 

You're is a contraction of "you" and "are"

You're not so good at grammar. You're short sighted. You're going to need to contact your insurance company.... 

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Duane, you only made 18k on unemployment? I thought you were an engineer? Isn't unemployment 60% of your salary?

 

I'm not 100% sure what the algorithm used to calculate unemployment compensation actually is... The year prior, I earned 40k gross and the year before that I was at right around 27k gross... In my experience (the couple times I was unemployed) it seemed to be closer to 50% of my net pay while i was working.

 

I also elected to have federal taxes deducted from my unemployment so I wouldn't get hit with that at the end of the year...

 

it was also my first time being "unemployed" directly after an engineering gig. The time before when I was dropped from an engineering job, i took a bunch of temp jobs rather than signing up directly for unemployment. This last time, there weren't any temp jobs out there for me to fill... despite being signed up with 4 different temp services and 3 head hunters.

Edited by magley64
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17,000 would be 1416/month, I don't see any pay here that low...

http://www.militaryfactory.com/military_pay_scale.asp

 

22k is higher than an entry level enlisted, but not by much, and 22k includes all of their free benefits (phone, housing, food) it's not 22k in addition to all of those things (as with military benefits)...

 

Now, if you think you could be happy on 22k/year, that's your perogative. 

 

Myself, I was getting almost that ($18,200) per year for the few months I was unemployed, and it was not fun. I had to scrape and borrow to make my house payment and bills, I went stir crazy sitting at home all the time, and I didn't have any money left over to do anything else....

 

Like I said to do nothing, sure man 22K is a ton of money to do nothing, granted I am married and we split all the bills.  I would sell my truck, and be hassle free, just mtg and utilities that break down to way less than 1K a month when split in half. 

 

And 60% of my income for unemployment, yeah that wouldn't be that bad to do nothing.  Cut out childcare and get something part time under the table(Have that lined up in case I get cut at my current job). 

 

Granted I do NOT want to live this way and have way higher expectations, but saying in the end, the system is F'd up badly. 

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