Free Republic

The concept of the food-stamp queen was first proffered by Ronald Reagan during a 1976 campaign speech. "In Chicago, they found a woman who holds the record," he told the assembled crowd. "She used 80 names, 30 addresses, 15 telephone numbers to collect food stamps, Social Security, veterans' benefits for four nonexistent deceased veteran husbands, as well as welfare. Her tax-free cash income alone has been running $150,000 a year." Reagan's story turned out to be a gross exaggeration of a minor case of welfare fraud, but since their patron saint conjured her up, conservatives have been unable to rid...

Welfare fraud is an expensive problem that taxpayers everywhere are paying for, but in Missouri there is a movement in the state legislature to help stop the fraud. State Representative Marsha Haefner has filed legislation that “will allow the Department of Social Services to contract with a third party vendor and establish a eligibility verification system.” This is a central component of the Stop the Scam reforms being implemented recently in several other states. Modern technology allows multiple databases to be compared and can determine if people who are signed up for welfare services are actually qualify for taxpayer funded...

Growth in the food stamp caseload occurred particularly rapidly among able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs). These are work-capable adults between the ages of 18 and 49 who do not have children or other dependents to support. The ABAWD food stamp caseload grew by nearly 150 percent between 2008 and 2014 and has risen from nearly 2 million recipients in 2008 to around 5 million today. In response to the growth in food stamp dependence, Maine's Governor, Paul LePage, recently established work requirements on ABAWD recipients. In Maine, all ABAWDs in the food stamp program are now required to take a...

According to Cain, the Trump phenomenon can be summed up in three words: "Leadership, fighter and winner." Cain, the former Republican presidential candidate, says the "Trump phenomenon" is so powerful that black women are leaving the Democratic Party to support Trump, a current Republican presidential candidate. Cain might not be that far off base, at least according to political consultant Frank Luntz, who told the online Politico page recently that Trump has a good chance of winning the black vote should he win the Republican nomination. "If he were the Republican nominee, he would get the highest percentage of black...

It’s a case of miracles and wonders up in the Pine Tree State, folks. A report from Rachel Sheffield and Robert Rector at the Daily Signal takes a look at welfare programs and efforts to reform them, particularly in the area of food stamps. They note that one of the fastest growing segments of welfare programs over the last decade has been applications for food stamps by ABAWDs, or able bodied adults without children between the ages of 18 and 49. These are folks who are determined to be otherwise able to work but without a source of income....

Washington, DC Councilman Kenyan McDuffie proposed and the City Council unanimously adopted a measure that will pay criminals to refrain from committing crimes. Under the plan, residents with a sufficiently impressive rap-sheet will be paid up to $9,000 in cash per year for each year they aren't convicted of a crime. "This is not some lame-brained scheme that any smart aleck can game," McDuffie boasted. "Only those who can document their criminal behavior will be eligible for the stipend. By paying the 'worst-of-the-worst' members of our community to cool it we will have a greater impact than if we put...

There is a letter titled "Isn't It Strange?" making the rounds in email boxes. It asks questions to which our fellow Americans should know the answers, save for those caught up in modernity. It starts off asking, "Isn't it strange that after a bombing, everyone blames the bomber, his upbringing, his environment, his culture but ... after a shooting, the problem is the gun?" In other words, after a shooting, it is the gun, an inanimate object, that is the culprit, but after a bombing, it is not the bomb that receives the blame but the evil individual. In both...

More than 1 million low-income residents in 21 states could soon lose their government food stamps if they fail to meet work requirements that began kicking in this month. The rule change in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program was triggered by the improving economy - specifically, falling unemployment. But it is raising concerns among the poor, social service providers and food pantry workers, who fear an influx of hungry people. Recent experience in other states indicates that most of those affected will probably not meet the work requirements and will be cut off from food stamps. ...

Law enforcement officers in Polk County, Florida have arrested 11 people for using stolen Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards. The arrests were made as the result of a year-long investigation.

As of December 2012, the total population of the United States -- including members of the Armed Forces stationed overseas -- equaled 315,255,012, according to the Census Bureau's estimate. At some time during 2012, according to a study the Congressional Research Service published last month, approximately 134,800,000 people qualified for one or more of "nine major need-tested benefit programs" and approximately 106,000,000 actually received benefits from at least one of them. That means about 42.7 percent of the U.S population was eligible for one or more of these government benefit programs at some time during 2012 and about 33.6 percent...

[snip] Dr Adam Perkins [is] a lecturer in the neurobiology of personality at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London. [snip] Over the past five years, he has accumulated a mass of evidence about the personalities of welfare claimants and concluded that individuals with aggressive, rule-breaking and anti-social tendencies - what he calls the 'employment-resistant personality profile' — are over-represented among benefit recipients. He also found that their children are likely to share those traits, which helps explain why poverty has a tendency to be passed down from one generation to the next. Now, none of...

That mass migration is adding enormous pressure to public services has been confirmed by German dental professionals, who have warned the teeth of many immigrants are so bad they require significant work, which will cost the tax payer billions of Euros.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard says a measure to require some welfare applicants to pass drug tests would be a waste of money and "somewhat insulting." Daugaard said Friday that he hasn't previously been enthusiastic about similar proposals. Republican Rep. Lynne DiSanto is the measure's main House sponsor. Her plan would require applicants under 65 to be drug tested before receiving food stamps or cash assistance.

Men with more than one wife will qualify for extra benefits under the new welfare system, according to official House of Commons research. Under the universal credit welfare system, which is not expected to be fully introduced until 2021, polygamous households will be rewarded with higher benefits, The Sunday Times reports. In the UK, it is illegal to marry more than one person. Polygamous marriages, largely confined to Muslim families, are only recognised in Britain if they took place in countries where they are legal, such as Middle Eastern states, Pakistan and Zambia.

Last year, 42 North American drillers filed for bankruptcy, according to law firm Haynes and Boone. It's only likely to get worse this year. Experts say there are a lot of parallels between today's crisis and the last oil crash in 1986. Back then, 27% of exploration and production companies went bust. Defaults are skyrocketing again. In December, exploration and production company defaults topped 11%, up from just 0.5% the previous year, according to Fitch Ratings. That's a 2,000%-plus jump. It's just the beginning, says John La Forge, head of real assets strategy at Wells Fargo. If history repeats, people...

Unlike government, which never has a bottom line and seems not to care one whit for economic consequences in U.S. deficit spending and counting)--such is not the case for any business or any rational person managing a household budget Apparently the liberal MSM and politicians confuse the name Walmart with the concept of welfare. The first is a publicly-traded retailer with stockholders that expect the company to remain profitable. The second is a government-sponsored entitlement program for the needy. The two are examples of entirely different economic animals: the first provides purpose, the semblance of independence and potential upward mobility,...

Taxpayers could be losing up to $6000 of they don't apply for a certain tax credit, Channel 9's Steve Barrett reported. Volunteers from Heart of Florida United Way's (HFUW) "Financially Fit" are going door to door to some homes in Central Florida to make sure taxpayers are aware of the Earned Income Tax Credit. The group said it is also making sure low-income taxpayers know that they qualify for free tax assistance. "It's around $6,000 that they can get for the Earned Income Tax Credit. It's based on your income and the number of people in your household. Then, getting...

Since President Obama took office the number of able-bodied-without-dependents who are receiving government food subsidies has soared by 370%. This increase in participation by persons who in another era would have been expected to fend for themselves was hailed as "great progress on the President's goal of transforming America," by Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell. "Relieved of the burden of feeding themselves, these individuals are free to pursue goals higher on Maslow's hierarchy of needs." One of the favorite "higher goals" of this segment of the population is smoking. Fully 50% of the subsidized beneficiaries are smokers...

Here’s a question: Why should lawmakers bother trying to inject transparency into the operations of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation? Wouldn’t it make more sense to apply their efforts to just dumping the MEDC altogether? Given the obstacles, the answer may be “probably not.” As Michigan’s corporate welfare arm, the agency spends the public’s money to entice businesses to start operations in the state, or pay firms already located here not to move elsewhere. The primary goal is to create jobs. Yet according to state audits and independent studies, the MEDC's success rate for creating the number of jobs it...

Bernie Sanders’ “Democrat socialist” policies sound good and have a lot of popular support among certain demographics, but when pressed on how he would pay for all the free stuff he’s promising, he’s a bit nonplussed. Pesky details like that just don’t interest him; it’s all about the utopian ideal in his dreamy little head, not about reality.For example, although he pledged to release his plan for paying for his health care plan before the Iowa caucuses, he’s now decided that might be a mistake and is considering breaking that particular pledge.CNN reports: Bernie Sanders could break his pledge...