Free Republic

Every now and then the Oregonian, perhaps unwittingly, produces an article that should set Americans thinking about changing the status quo. This past weekend was one of those instances. In the September 6, 2015 edition, Joseph Rose wrote an article recalling the halcyon years of the Works Progress Administration or Works Project Administration (WPA) as it became known as in later years:

In 2013, the New York Times reported on the case of Carina, a 36-year-old Danish single mother who had been on welfare since she was 16. Denmark has long had one of the most generous welfare systems in Europe, and Carina was able to collect about $2,700 per month in benefits, an amount that enabled her to live quite comfortably without working. A second welfare recipient discussed in the article, Robert Nielsen, had been supported by the government for more than a dozen years. He had not attempted to find work and did not intend to. As he said, “Luckily,...

Court allows for voter registration at all welfare offices. No citizen identity required.

A new report by my colleague Steven Camarota finds that most immigrant households use welfare. That immigrants receive taxpayer-funded benefits at higher rates than the native-born isn’t a new finding. But previous research (including by CIS) has never found such a high rate. The reason is that Camarota used a different Census Bureau data source, the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), that is more difficult to use but, as its name suggests, provides the most comprehensive view of welfare use (a.k.a “program participation”). The study shows that 51 percent of immigrant-headed households use at least one welfare...

51 percent of immigrant households—both legal and illegal—receive some kind of public assistance, versus just 30 percent of native households. Whether immigrants contribute more to total economic activity or public revenues greater than they receive in benefits is not addressed in this report, and remains a subject of fierce controversy. ... This study is the first in recent years to examine immigrant (legal and illegal) and native welfare use using the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). While its complexity makes it difficult to use, the survey is widely regarded as providing the most accurate picture of...

Unemployed individuals in America are more likely to go shopping, watch TV, or play sports on an average day than to look for a new job, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Less than one in five of America’s unemployed, or 18.2 percent, participated in job search and interview activities on an average day, according to the BLS data from the American Time Use Survey. Yet 40.8 percent of the unemployed shopped on the average day by store, telephone, or Internet. Of those who shopped, 21.5 percent of those shopped for items other than groceries, food, or...

Unemployment has dropped in recent years, yet still—far too many people are participating. One out of every seven Americans received SNAP benefits in 2014, and the program cost $74.1 billion, making it one of the largest means-tested welfare program. You’d think the improving jobs situation would translate to the number of SNAP beneficiaries declining by a much larger margin. But that hasn’t been the case. Another reason for saying that food stamp numbers aren’t really going in the right direction? Look at how the SNAP demographic has changed. Before the 2008 recession, 55 percent of SNAP households consisted of children...

There are obvious problems with giving people “free” money.

‘Peter and Ellie Yang,” the subjects of Benjamin Carlson’s fascinating new Rolling Stone essay, “Welcome to Maternity Hotel California,” paid $35,000 to have their second child in the United States. In 2012 Chinese state media reported 10,000 “tourist births” by Chinese couples in the United States; other estimates skew as high as 60,000. Following Donald Trump’s call for an end to birthright citizenship, and renewed attention on “anchor babies,” Carlson’s exposé on “birth tourism” seems to confirm that the current interpretation of the 14th Amendment works as a magnet for at least some parents across the globe. But just...

A specter is haunting the West — the specter of immigration. All the powers of the old establishment have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter: Liberal and Conservative, democrat and aristocrat, college radicals and billionaires. Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as fascistic by its opponents in power? Where is the opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of racism, against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries? Obviously, I’m having some fun here by reworking the opening lines of the Communist Manifesto to fit...

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Since his party's impressive election victory in May, Prime Minister David Cameron is moving quickly to fulfill his campaign promise to ensure welfare benefits are no longer a way of life for many of his fellow citizens. Instead of open-ended benefits for the unemployed, the government, beginning in April 2017, will require young people between 18 and 21 who don't have jobs, but are collecting welfare, to attend three-week "boot camps" to prepare them for work in a rapidly improving economy. If they refuse, they will be denied benefits if they are unemployed for six months....

Maine Drug Enforcement Agency agents revealed yesterday that EBT cards (debit cards that are loaded with funds for welfare programs, like SNAP and TANF) are being used as currency to buy drugs. In the past 11 months, MDEA agents have found 40 EBT cards in 25 drug enforcement operations.

In New York, there's a family of four that makes half a million dollars a year — and lives in public housing at $1,574 a month. In Los Angeles, one family of five makes $205,000 a year and pays $1,100 in rent for subsidized housing. The family was admitted to the program in 1974 and has been overincome since at least 2011. How can this be?

A family of four in New York City makes $497,911 a year but pays $1,574 a month to live in public housing in a three-bedroom apartment subsidized by taxpayers. In Los Angeles, a family of five that’s lived in public housing since 1974 made $204,784 last year but paid $1,091 for a four-bedroom apartment. And a tenant with assets worth $1.6 million — including stocks, real estate and retirement accounts — last year paid $300 for a one-bedroom apartment in public housing in Oxford, Neb. In a new report, the watchdog for the Department of Housing and Urban Development describes...

FRONT ROYAL, VA — Millions of Americans, including many Catholics, were stunned when Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Catholic Archbishop of New York, attacked opponents of illegal immigration as “nativists” in a recent and widely-circulated column in a liberal New York tabloid. Unfortunately, Cardinal Dolan’s outburst represents a long line of liberalism on the part of America’s bishops — a position based not only on their “Social Justice” leftism, but because the welfare state which they celebrate doles out over a billion dollars a year to their Non-Government Organizations (Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Migration and Refugee Services, and so on)....

Those that run food banks all over America say that demand for their services just continues to explode. It always amazes me that there are still people out there that insist that an “economic collapse” is not happening. From their air-conditioned homes in their cushy suburban neighborhoods they mock the idea that the U.S. economy is crumbling. But if they would just go down and visit the local food banks in their areas, they would see how much people are hurting. According to Feeding America spokesman Ross Fraser, 46 million Americans got food from a food bank at least one...

Did you see what just happened? The devaluation of the yuan by China triggered the largest one day drop for that currency in the modern era. This caused other global currencies to crash relative to the U.S. dollar, the price of oil hit a six year low, and stock markets all over the world were rattled. The Dow fell 212 points on Tuesday, and Apple stock plummeted another 5 percent. As we hurtle toward the absolutely critical months of September and October, the unraveling of the global financial system is beginning to accelerate. At this point, it is not...

There is one question that should be asked of every presidential candidate at a presidential debate. It is also a question no one dares ask: In 1794, as you are of course well aware, James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, was asked about the constitutionality of publicly funded charity. He responded: "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending on objects of benevolence the money of their constituents." Given Mr. Madison's remarks, it is beyond contention that the welfare state in its entirety is unconstitutional. If...

This has been posted by news sites with links to their sites. I post this again this time with a direct link to the Senator; but most of all I reformatted the text with HTML to emphasize the startling facts equal to or more than what the colorful chart conveyed.

Michigan's Earned Income Tax Credit is a welfare-like program that transfers income from taxpayers to low-income wage earners who have little or no state tax liability. The costs vs. benefits of the program are hotly debated, but no one disputes that it does provide a real if modest benefit to working poor families. In contrast, there are heated disputes about the value of the even larger amounts this state spends on corporate welfare programs administered by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation — and there are good reasons to believe they are a waste of money. Lawmakers should keep this contrast...