Free Republic

In 1994 California voters approved a ballot measure that blocks illegal aliens from receiving welfare benefits. Now State Senator Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) has introduced a Senate Bill (396) that would overturn the 1994 vote and make these undocumented residents eligible for publicly-funded aid. "These people are the poorest of the poor," de Leon said. "They came to this country to escape the poverty of their native lands. It is inhumane for us to deny them relief at the end of their arduous treks." The Senator dismissed concerns that the State budget was already too strained to bear the...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Despite the well-known risks, rates of smoking have remained stubbornly high in Missouri – about 25 percent of adults, compared with 18 percent nationally. In Kansas City, Mo., public housing, the problem is even worse, with smokers comprising 40 percent of all tenants. That high rate is especially disturbing to health advocates because of the high numbers of vulnerable people - particularly children, the disabled and elderly - who live in public housing. A new policy aims to do away with smoking in city-owned housing, but many residents are not pleased. On a breezy Friday afternoon...

Keep talking Comrade Bill; keep talking. There is now no question about whether this devoted Communist will damage the Democrat brand; the question is by how much? Comrade Bill de Blasio, New York’s mayor, is living up to predictions that he will serve as the foul mouthed three year old at the family Thanksgiving table. The child keeps saying embarrassing things while his parents act shocked and wonder out loud where he learned such words. Make no mistake about him he is a true Communist not a Democrat. But the D behind his name will hang him around Nancy Pelosi’s...

Since May 18, the Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas has been home to 1,000 illegal immigrant children, according to a report by the San Antonio Express-News. The decision to utilize the base comes as an overwhelming number of young people have been caught crossing the Mexican/U.S. border during recent months. Children and teens brought to Lackland will be provided with education, foster care programs, and "behavioral treatment centers." The projected cost of such programs, as well as the cost of the housing, has not been disclosed to U.S. taxpayers. The federal government was forced to utilize Lackland...

In an effort to stop abuse of Michigan's food stamps debit card program, State Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, wants state Bridge Cards to have photos and no longer allow recipients to take cash withdrawals from them. Rep. McMillin introduced House Bill 5536 earlier this week with 12 co-sponsors. He said the technology is available to have the state make direct payments from the Bridge Card to landlords, utilities and child care providers while restricting food and clothing purchases to the basics. He said those measures as well as a photo identification on the card would greatly reduce fraud and...

The rollback of welfare reform under New York City’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, has begun in earnest. The city’s Human Resources Administration just informed able-bodied, childless adults that they no longer need to do anything in exchange for their food stamps. Sitting at home and watching TV while you collect your benefits is just fine with de Blasio and his new welfare chief, former Legal Aid Society chief Steve Banks. Until this Monday, New York City required able-bodied adults without dependents to work or to participate in a work-placement program for 20 hours a week in order to maintain their...

“Blacks are different” is a generalization being made by a long time public defender who goes by a pseudonym in order to speak freely and protect himself and his family from danger. “My experience has…taught me that blacks are different by almost any measure [from] all other people,” says the public defender using the pen name Michael Smith.(1) “I have no explanation for why this is, but crime has racial patterns.” While blacks commit many violent crimes, they commit “very few sex crimes,” the author of this outstanding report says. Crime patterns he has noticed break down into Hispanics committing...

American Dependency (And The 3rd Day Of The Month Effect) Tyler Durden 05/13/2014 16:51 -0400 Submitted by Rory of The Daily Coin via Jim Quinn's Burning Platform blog. Having noted America's surging government dependence before, the impact of almost 50 million people on food stamps is hard to imagine if you are not in retail food. The spike in business beginning on the 3rd of each month is truly astounding. By the 10th of the month the business begins to normalize and by the 22nd the ship is sinking. When there is a holiday in the month we experience a...

Six people who are in the United States illegally joined an immigration attorney (Skype image on the wall) to discuss the recommendations made by the group #Not1More that would provide amnesty to millions. To mark May Day last week, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) invited people who are in the country illegally to Capitol Hill where they released a list of executive orders they believe President Barack Obama should put in place, including stopping all deportations and bringing back deportees who have family here. At the event, held in the Canon Office Building, seven people who are part of a “Blue...

NH State Rep. Timothy Horrigan Regardless of political affiliation, you may want to sit down for this story. In opposition to a bill banning the use of EBT cards to buy guns, a Democratic lawmaker in New Hampshire argued that the legislation is “a blatant violation of the Second Amendment,” saying people receiving public assistance should be allowed to use cash benefits to purchase firearms. Yes, you read that correctly. “The firearms ban is a blatant violation of the Second Amendment,” Democratic state Rep. Timothy Horrigan said Wednesday on the state house floor. “Cash benefit recipients presumably have the same...

...Obama is showcasing Wal-Mart, often a target of labor groups and other Democratic constituencies, to promote advances in energy efficiency in his broader campaign to confront climate change.

Republican leaders are trying quietly to reauthorize a corporate welfare agency this week, using a few opaque words slipped into a bill providing foreign aid to Africa. The Overseas Private Investment Corp. is a federal agency thatsubsidizes U.S. companies investing in foreign countries -- such as Ritz-Carlton building a hotel in Turkey. OPIC provides a taxpayer backstop for the banks and the developers in case anything goes wrong. OPIC's charter expires Sept. 30 -- the end of the current fiscal year. A standalone bill to reauthorize OPIC would face a tough fight, given the strong Tea Party, anti-corporate-welfare strain in the House. Instead, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce...

In a bid to win over evangelicals for her anticipated 2016 Presidential campaign, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton compared Democratic support for welfare programs to Jesus’ concern for the poor. “How can those familiar with the story of the loaves and fishes not see the parallels with current Democratic efforts to feed the poor?” Clinton asked. “How is Jesus’ feeding the multitude with a handful of bread and fish not emulated by the EBT card?” “I’m not saying that Democrats have the magical powers of God,” Clinton said. “But from the perspective of the EBT beneficiaries it must certainly...

Our President has attempted to make a major issue of the difference between the very successful in our country and the rest of us as a focus of his party’s campaign for the 2014 elections. He does have a point that some people’s income levels have really soared while others have languished. He just has a wrong-headed solution to the problem. Not surprisingly, Mr. Obama has chosen to resolve the issue through government intervention. He has a two-pronged effort. First, he has greatly increased welfare payments which have been dissected ad nauseum by this column. Otherwise, he has consistently thought...

SIOUX FALLS, SD - U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Annette Bosworth is standing strongly in support of a controversial Facebook post she made on Monday. "The statement is tongue and cheek; it's meant to stir discussion," Bosworth said. Stir discussion it has. Bosworth is receiving national attention for a Facebook post she made earlier this week. The post, which has now been shared by nearly 60,000 people, is a photo comparing the country's food stamp program to a national park warning about feeding the animals, which goes on to say the animals would grow dependent on the handout. "It did ruffle...

Faith is making a comeback among liberal Democrats, but they still have a way to go. First, some history. Hoping to attract some Evangelical Christian votes more than 20 years ago, former vice president Al Gore wrote that the biblical story of Noah and the Ark could be paraphrased in modern terms, "Thou shalt preserve biodiversity" ("Earth in the Balance" p. 245). Gore also claimed the first recorded instance of pollution was when Cain killed Abel and Abel's blood "falls on the ground, rendering it fallow" (p. 247). Gore seemed fluent in religious language and theology compared to a comment...

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's 15 minutes of fame are up. He was a Fox News poster boy when he refused to pay fees for grazing his cows on federal land and greeted federal rangers with the threat of armed resistance. But when he voiced his views on the joys of slavery for "the Negro," his conservative champions fled from his side. What is interesting about Bundy, however, is not his tired racism but rather his remarkable sense of entitlement. His cattle have fed off public lands for two decades while he refused to pay grazing fees that are much lower...

The federal government can easily afford a job guarantee program, becoming our employer of last resort.Involuntary unemployment is barbaric. In the wealthiest country in history, almost 30 million people wish they had full-time work. But, as always, there aren’t enough jobs. And because economic security requires decent work, it’s unsurprising that 50 million people are poverty-stricken and 16 million children are hungry. This is a disgrace and an economic error: the US government can easily afford a Job guarantee (JG) program, becoming our employer of last resort. A right to a job may sound outlandish, but it’s common sense. You...

In 20 percent of American families in 2013, according to new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), not one member of the family worked. A family, as defined by the BLS, is a group of two or more people who live together and who are related by birth, adoption or marriage. In 2013, there were 80,445,000 families in the United States and in 16,127,000—or 20 percent--no one had a job. The BLS designates a person as “employed” if “during the survey reference week” they “(a) did any work at all as paid employees; (b) worked in their...

Maine is starting to issue welfare benefit cards with photos on them despite a request from the federal government to wait. ... the U.S. Department of Agriculture asked Maine to delay its plan, saying that it risks a loss of federal funding or litigation if it violates regulations in the program. But DHHS said it will move forward with its plan designed to combat fraud and abuse in the program.