Free Republic

Thousands of New Yorkers living in dangerous 'cluster units' as homeless population tops 59,000, a record high The homeless count represents a 10% jump during Mayor de Blasio's first year in office. Despite his vows to turn around the problem and ditch the use of cluster units, the city is still forced to house families in these much-criticized apartments, which have often been cited for hazardous code violations. The homeless population has risen to an all-time high, forcing the de Blasio administration to house desperate families in decrepit tenements red-flagged by the city’s own inspectors as hazardous. Since he arrived...

Scott Walker has had a good week. The press is googly-eyed over him, waxing on about how he could just win this thing, and he's still rolling on his high from last weekend's Freedom Summit. Of course, that's not really something to write home about when you're besting the likes of Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee. He's got that populist message down pat just like his other friends on the campaign trail. Income inequality! Deteriorating middle class! And he's so concerned about those things he's going to govern on that basis, right? Walker has a real problem on...

When professors do pay attention to religion, they usually get it wrong. “Conservatives would rather have [social welfare] provided by religious organizations, which is incompatible with other aspects of Catholic social teaching,” Robin Sowards, an adjunct professor at Duquesne University told an audience at the Modern Language Association (MLA) convention in Vancouver, Canada. Here are a few highlights from the history of Catholic Charities: October 24, 1727—“Ursuline sisters arrive from France to open an orphanage, school for street girls, and health facility in New Orleans. It is the first formal Catholic charity in the present United States.” January 1, 1845—“The...

In the autumn of 2013 I was in my first term of school in a decade. I had two jobs; my husband, Tom, was working full-time; and we were raising our two small girls. It was the first time in years that we felt like maybe things were looking like they’d be OK for a while. After a gruelling shift at work, I was unwinding online when I saw a question from someone on a forum I frequented: Why do poor people do things that seem so self-destructive? I thought I could at least explain what I’d seen and how...

Madison — Setting up a likely legal fight in the federal courts, Gov. Scott Walker is proceeding with his plan to ensure that drug users aren't getting food stamp or jobless benefits. Fulfilling a campaign promise, the Republican governor committed Thursday to putting the proposal in his next budget but provided few new details on how he would pursue a plan that could run afoul of federal rules in programs such as food stamps and unemployment insurance. For the first time, he did commit to offering free treatment and job training for those testing positive for drugs, but he offered...

President Obama believes that “middle class economics” work. This meaningless tag line must have been popular in focus groups. What exactly qualifies as “middle class economics”? Based on the President’s State of the Union speech and the lead up to it, it apparently entails a bunch of big government programs provided to the middle class for “free.” Unlike the lower classes, who pay very little in taxes, the middle class likely isn’t fooled by the ruse of “free.” Most in the middle class understand that free means taxes are increased, likely on them. While the President offered a few middle...

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) says two years of free college “is really so important to the security of the United States of America.” [Snip] Rangel goes on to explain, “Even though we are very pleased with the economic growth that we have - no one can deny that our middle class is hurting and it’s very difficult for them to make ends meet on their salaries.” “The cost of living has shot up but the diversity between, uh, the disparity between the rich and the poor is something we have to overcome. Education – just as the G.I. Bill did...

Vice President Joe Biden is playing the role of President Obama’s pitch man in advance of the State of the Union address Tuesday night, promoting the “free” stuff the White House is offering to build support for the agenda called “DOA” by the GOP. In a State of the Union address fundraising email for the Democratic Party, Biden pushed the promise of free community college and better high-speed internet. He did not mention the proposed $320 billion in taxes the White House is also heralding.

Social worker Tara Tisdale, who allegedly sold her clients' private information, was one of those fired from the Human Resources Administration. Call them anti-social workers. Nearly 140 employees from the city Human Resources Administration — the city’s welfare agency — have been axed or forced to resign over the last six years for crimes and misconduct, including an agent charged with keeping food stamps for herself and another who allegedly paid a client to tend to his ferret, according to new data obtained by The Post. The accused cheats included Shamalah Millington, 34, who allegedly concealed her husband’s income to...

Under President Obama’s new program to protect millions of illegal immigrants from deportation, many of those affected will be eligible to receive Social Security, Medicare and a wide array of other federal benefits, a White House official said Tuesday. In his speech Thursday night, the president touted his plan as a means of bringing accountability to a broken immigration system, under which 11 million or more people are estimated to be living in this country illegally. “We’re going to offer the following deal: If you’ve with been in America more than five years. If you have children who are American citizens...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Rochester, NY (WROC) - LaTanya Daughtry needs a new place to live. The single mother of two boys is on disability and gets a Section 8 housing voucher. But many online classifieds ads say "No Section 8." "It just makes me feel people look at me differently because I'm on Section 8," Daughtry said. "A lot of ads say no Section 8 right off the bat." Section 8 is a federal housing program run through the Rochester Housing Authority. Recipients pay a portion of the rent and Section 8 pays the rest. Section 8 vouchers are in short supply. In...

As if Silicon Valley hasn't given us enough already, it may have to start giving us all money. The first indication I got of this came one evening last summer, when I sat in on a meet-up of virtual-currency enthusiasts at a hackerspace a few miles from the Googleplex, in Mountain View, California. After one speaker enumerated the security problems of a promising successor to Bitcoin, the economics blogger Steve Randy Waldman got up to speak about "engineering economic security." Somewhere in his prefatory remarks he noted that he is an advocate of universal basic income—the idea that everyone should...

Rapper Azealia Banks took to Twitter on Monday to urge her followers to push for reparations for African-Americans after the hip hop star seemed to realize just how much of America’s wealth came from slave trade. “They Owe us Money,” one tweet read. Another similar tweet read, “ITS MY MONEY, AND I WANT IT NOWWWWW!!!!!” At first glance, people may be rolling their eyes and assuming that Banks went on yet another expletive-filled Twitter rant launched by her beef with some other artist. This time around, however, her so-called Twitter rant was a bit more like a Twitter lecture. While...

In 1977, William McPherson earned the top honor in the writing world when he was honored with a Pulitzer Prize.But nearly four decades later, the former Washington Post critic now hovers on the brink of poverty thanks to a failing pension and a bit of bad luck on the stock market.In a heartbreaking essay for The Hedgehog Review, McPherson describes what it's like to become poor in old age-as part of a overlooked group who are neither middle or lower class.Former teachers and even lawyers who can't pay their bills but aren't on the streets begging for change.Surprisingly, he says...

Why is it that most people eventually abandon the idea of Santa Claus … and yet so many never abandon belief in an omnipotent government? Santa Claus is magic. His toy sack never empties, he traverses the globe faster than lightning, his reindeer never tire, his elves never strike, and he’s never too fat for the chimney. Awed by his powers, young kids approach the Jolly One clutching wish lists that itemize the objects of their “unbridled avarice,” as a popular Christmas movie put it. And why not? Santa’s little supplicants are prodded by plenty of parental encouragement. No toy...

About seven out of every eight Obamacare insurance customers who enrolled between November 15 and mid-December are poor enough to qualify for taxpayer-funded subsidies designed to lower their monthly premiums. The Department of Health and Human Services reported that number Tuesday, saying it's up from 80 per cent a year ago. Americans who participate in government-brokered medical insurance can get subsidies from the federal treasury if their households earn less than four times the government's official 'poverty' level. That situation describes 64 per cent of all U.S. residents, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. But far more are qualifying, suggesting...

"....Media sensationalism this year about two black deaths at the hands of white policemen inflamed the argument,.........Here, however, is one standup law-enforcement professional, Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke, Jr., who begs to disagree.Sheriff Clarke publicly condemns anti-police populism as the Left's deflection of an urban reality with which he's professionally all too familiar and for which the Left's all too politically responsible. "This deflects," says Sheriff Clarke:against the real thing that we need to have a conversation about in this country and it's the American ghetto. And that's where most of the policing unfortunately has to be applied. The...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Michigan now has more food stamp recipients than it does public school students, an analysis of federal and state statistics by Breitbart News reveals. Michigan, which announced on Friday plans to begin drug testing some welfare recipients, currently has 1,679,421 individuals on food stamps (known officially as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP), according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. According to the Michigan Department of Education, the state’s total pupil count for K-12 is 1,564,114....

Milton Friedman 1978. From a lecture given at Stanford University, he instructs students and faculty on how free markets are the number one tool in the universe to reduce poverty. In the video he disparages government programs that discourage productivity, undermine minority advancement, and actually create poverty...

Azealia Banks is still bothered by America’s history with slavery and took to Twitter to let everyone know about it! The 23-year-old rapper believed that America owed money to blacks for putting them into slavery and stopping them from being successful in society. “I don’t know why all the white people on my Twitter are saying I’m “playing the victim” cause I’m not… I really just want my [expletive] money,” the 23-year-old rapper tweeted on Saturday (December 27). Azealia decided to voice her opinion after she stirred up some controversy by saying that she wanted to find descendants of slave...