Free Republic

State Rep. Lyle Larson is asking Mexican President Felipe Calderón to pay for services that Texas provides immigrants who are here illegally. In a March 21 letter, Larson, R-San Antonio, wrote that the state spends between $6 billion and $8 billion a year on health care and other costs for illegal immigrants, a number he attributed to the Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas. Larson, who filed a bill during the 2011 legislative session that would have required state agencies and organizations that receive state funding to track the services they provide immigrants, said he wants to “start a dialogue.” “We...

If the likes of Ford Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally and Hollywood Film Producer James Cameron want tax breaks for their projects in Michigan, they may have to take a drug test to get the money if a bipartisan group of State Representatives have their way. Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, introduced House Bill 5527 on Wednesday that calls for top executives in companies to be drug tested if they receive certain tax breaks from the state. The bill currently has four co-sponsors: Pat Somerville, R-New Boston, Judson Gilbert, R-Algonac, Mike Shirkey, R-Clark Lake, and Jim Ananich, D-Flint. Rep. McMillin...

Will the reasons to send Octomom death threats never end? The latest sting of controversy comes courtesy of the latest Octomom welfare scandal. Nadya "Octomom" Suleman has applied for and been approved to receive food assistance benefits from the state of California. Her act has drawn the ire of the Internet in the form of mass death threats, the New York Daily News reports. The mother of 14 (14!) is scheduled to get $2,000 per month in public assistance. The funds will be transferred directly into a debit card and may only be used to buy food. The death threats...

Flaunting food stamps almost seems to be a trend. First, Mr. EBT released his now-infamous rap. Shortly thereafter, girls followed suit with their own version. Now, a night club in Montgomery, Ala., is hosting its very own “Food Stamp Friday” party. On April 6, the Rose Supper Club in North Montgomery will offer a discounted cover charge — and free shots — to any patron who flashes a food stamp card at the door. Not surprisingly, some Montgomery residents aren’t happy about the way the party seems to glamorize a life on government assistance.

When will this Republican war on women end? Strippers are women too, you know. And now comes this report of the EBT [Electronic Benefits Transfer] Card Commission, suggesting that perhaps the state should comply with new federal laws and stop providing the layabout community with free lap dances. This is practically a hate crime. Bad enough they’ve already banned EBT cards at package stores. They sell limes at packies [package aka liquor stores], and single moms need limes, you know, to ward off scurvy. It’s for the children. One recommendation was to “eliminate cash benefits and require POS (point of...

Filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi's daughter, has unleashed a firestorm of social controversy by interviewing some welfare recipients who told her on camera that they believe they're entitled to "Obama money." That is, welfare checks. Some of those Pelosi spotlighted are young men who are not even looking for work. They have plenty of excuses for that. But the bottom line: They want money handed to them, and stuff you if you don't like it. Also, some of these men have multiple children by multiple "baby mamas." Again, their posture is blank you if you don't approve. That attitude appalls...

YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS VIDEO

Check out this video; less than 3 minutes. Democrat Welfare recipients in NYC. I can't believe that Nancy Pelosi's Daughter filmed this and Bill Maher showed it on his program. It is a "slam" to Obama. Check it out; even if you have to cut and paste the URL link. It's worth it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mno1SqjmQ0g

Alexandra Pelosi appeared on Real Time tonight with two purposes: to defend the video she filmed of voters in Mississippi that aired on the show last week, and to air a brand-new video that Bill Maher admitted would probably anger liberals in the same way the aforementioned video angered conservatives. For her new video, Pelosi spoke to African-American welfare recipients in New York. There was far less laughter during this piece than the Mississippi one (which Pelosi pointed out after it played), but there were still some revealing moments contained therein. One of the men lined up outside the welfare...

by John HillStand With Arizona Finally a state is stepping up to stop the fleecing of social service programs by illegal aliens. A Kentucky Senate panel unanimously approved a bill Thursday that would require applicants to government welfare programs to provide official proof of U.S. citizenship or legal residency. Federal law prohibits illegal immigrants from receiving most forms of welfare, including Medicaid, food stamps, WIC, public housing and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. But that hasn't illegal aliens from stealing tens of billions of these services across the nation. Illegal alien advocates such as La Raza, MALDEF and the ACLU...

LANSING — Michigan has made several changes to its Foster Youth in Transition Program in light of an audit that found it spent thousands of dollars on iPods, prom dresses, senior trips and a traffic ticket. The audit, released last month, found that the Michigan Department of Human Services did not effectively evaluate and monitor the payments and services it provided to youth transitioning out of foster care. The program is 80 percent funded by federal funds and 20 percent with state general fund dollars. State representatives questioned DHS officials about the audit and changes made during a House committee...

Now that the media feeding frenzy has calmed at least for a bit, it's worth saying that we've missed the whole point on Mizz Sandra Fluke. Fluke is the Georgetown Law School student who testified against the religious right of her school to refuse to pay for contraception because to do so would violate its religious principles. It's titillating -- but irrelevant -- to speculate about Fluke's sexually promiscuity. To try to characterize her as Rush Limbaugh did could be accurate but isn't connected to the political issue at hand. Sandra Fluke is a welfare queen. Remember, back in...

Bolstered by polls showing women are more likely to vote Democrat than men, President Obama boasted “we have a better story to tell them.” “The GOP is telling women to be responsible—get a job, get married—to take the so-called respectable path,” Obama asserted. “We’ve got a better offer.” “Our healthcare plan mandates free contraception and free abortion,” Obama pointed out. “This frees women from the fear of unwanted pregnancy without impairing their sex lives.” “Our welfare program ensures that should a woman choose to have a baby the government will provide for her and the child,” Obama added. “This frees...

Heard: high-level workers inside the USDA's SNAP program are planning a false-flag operation to ensure Obama's re-election. The plan, as I heard it from my source, is to hack or otherwise tamper with EBT accounts such that on 12:01 AM on the first day of the month (in states that fill accounts then) the welfare recipients will not have any more money on their EBT than they did. I understand that EBT recipients line up at midnight at the stores on the 1st so they can start buying. Then, when massive numbers of EBT holders are freaking out, the perps...

Of the many roles Pat Robertson has assumed over his five-decade-long career as an evangelical leader - including presidential candidate and provocative voice of the right wing - his newest guise may perhaps surprise his followers the most: marijuana legalization advocate. "I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol," Mr. Robertson said in an interview on Wednesday. "I've never used marijuana and I don't intend to, but it's just one of those things that I think: this war on drugs just hasn't succeeded."

Everybody is outraged by the fact that she has a lot of money now – $700,000 after taxes, apparently – but will stay on the government dole. What struck me was the fact that she was spending money on lottery tickets while on food stamps. If you have money to gamble, why does the government have to feed you? (VIDEO AT LINK) Really, this is just a “sign of the times” for where our society is at right now. We have an entire political party on the left that, as part of their 2012 campaign platform, is claiming that Republicans...

One million dollars may be a lot to most people, but apparently it is not enough for lottery winner Amanda Clayton, who is still receiving welfare assistance. The 24-year-old Michigan native won a $1 million state lottery prize in Sept., but has remained on the state's welfare system. Reports show that Clayton receives over $200 per month in food stamps and other state assistance. "I'm still struggling," she told WDIV, the local TV station. After being tipped off about Clayton's benefits, reporters began following her around and investigating her claim. "I feel that it's okay [to receive welfare] because I...

Royal Meeker, who was an advisor and long time ally(details, see chapter 4) to Woodrow Wilson, wrote the following: (page 544) In M. Colson's view the poor are poor through their own laziness, inability or thriftlessness; the rich are rich because of their own or their ancestors' virtues. The laws of property and of inheritance are almost above criticism. Any attempt to ameliorate the condition of those living at or below the minimum of subsistence must result in such an increase of the poorer classes that the result will inevitably be a larger number of miserable wretches living at or...

In a hearing that included testimony from children as young as 6 years old, an Assembly budget panel on Wednesday rejected Gov. Jerry Brown's welfare-to-work cuts. The Assembly's health and human services budget subcommittee voted 3-1 along party lines against cutting grant levels and eliminating adults after 24 months, instead of 48, if they cannot find work. Brown had counted on CalWORKs cuts to save $946 million to help close a deficit he estimates at $9.2 billion. The state has reduced welfare benefits since the recession, such as shrinking the adult time limit from 60 months to 48 months and...

Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado was flanked by senior citizens and needy children at city hall Thursday who will be more needy if cuts to federal funding kick in as scheduled on April 1st. It would prove a cruel April fool’s day. The cruelest cuts to federal block grant funds – that help feed the elderly, provide pre-school and day care for the children of low income working parents, help kids with disabilities, and provide health care to the poor – would be felt in South Florida cities. Hialeah would see it’s funding cut by nearly half. Miami by a third....

I am the 50.5 percent. I am, according to the Heritage Foundation, part of the lucky half of Americans who pay federal income taxes, so that the other half (technically the remaining 49.5 percent) can pay nothing. Half of us are paying the whole bill. Somehow that doesn’t seem fair. Folks like Elizabeth Warren and President Barack Obama agree. They think we should pay more. We’re used to that, we 50.5 percenters. Every time a new “stimulus” is announced, every time a new government program to solve all our problems is rolled out, we know that a) the problems aren’t...

"I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs a repair, I'll fix it." Thus did Mitt Romney supposedly commit the gaffe of the month -- for we are not to speak of the poor without unctuous empathy. Yet, as Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation reports in "Understanding Poverty in the United States: Surprising Facts About America's Poor," Mitt was more right about America's magnanimity than those who bewail her alleged indifference. First, who are the poor? To qualify, a family of four in 2010 needed to earn less than $22,314. Some...

I met my neighbor Rus Walton in 1974 before a financial disaster moved us from our lovely country home near Sacramento. We also enjoyed some of Governor Ronald Reagan’s staff. Rus gave me a copy of his new book, “One Nation Under God.” Rus ran The Plymouth Rock Foundation for many years and was a noted Christian speaker and prolific writer. People of faith have understood the principle of subsidiarity for a long, long time. It just means taking personal responsibility. When needed, the hierarchy of assistance offered or given begins with the family; then the community; the state; the...

.. Reilly has made headlines because she is mounting a legal challenge to what she says was the “forced labour” of being made to stack shelves for free in the discount retailer, or lose her £53-a-week in dole. “I was told it was mandatory. There were five of us sent there. I was the only graduate. We were doing exactly the same work as the paid staff. It makes no sense. If the Government subsidises high street chains with free labour, they don’t have to recruit. It causes unemployment rather than solves it.”..Reilly, whose degree was geology... The problem in...

On January 21 Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina Primary. But he did it, in part, by using racist rhetoric, characterizing President Obama as “the best food stamp president in American history.” Since then, he has continued to drive this distortion hoping it will somehow resonate with voters. It’s not likely to work, because most Americans understand that food is fundamental. Presidents do not put people onto the food stamp rolls. People, predominately people with children to feed, become eligible for food stamps. The food stamp program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, is a critical safety net for...

... Mitt Romney said he was "not concerned about the very poor" but would fix America's social safety net ... But if he wants to see a welfare system that lets almost no one fall through the cracks while at the same time ensuring that its beneficiaries don't become lifelong dependents, he could look to his own church. (snip) Launched during the Great Depression, the Mormon welfare system was designed by church leaders as a way to match the ... unemployed faithful with ... temporary labor. As storehouse manager ... explains, goods and services were traded so that if a...

One of the central, driving questions in our politics is this: Why are people who are themselves reliant on government programs so prone to electing anti-government politicans who want to put them on the chopping block?Paul Krugman talks to experts about this conundrum and comes away with some important conclusions that are directly relevant to this year’s presidential race:Cornell University’s Suzanne Mettler points out that many beneficiaries of government programs seem confused about their own place in the system. She tells us that 44 percent of Social Security recipients, 43 percent of those receiving unemployment benefits, and 40 percent...

Although Michigan’s unemployment rate has been dropping lately, there’s been a disturbing counter-trend developing over the last decade. One in five people in the state received government food assistance in 2011, up from 1 in 16 in 2001. Michigan has seen the number of food assistance recipients climb dramatically during the same time period, increasing from 623,335 in 2001 to 1.9 million in 2011, according to James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. The state’s population has remained about the same over the last decade. There were 9.9 million people in 2001 and...

COLLIER COUNTY - NBC2 Investigators discovered there are parents living in Florida illegally, but their children are getting millions of your tax dollars in public assistance. The amount they're receiving is growing. Despite little Sergio's smile, the Collier County kindergartener doesn't live an easy life. "He travels with his family. They don't know where they are going to sleep and eat when they get to another place," says Barbara Mainster, director of the Redlands Christian Migrant Association. The non-profit of 70 schools cater to poor migrant workers' children. Born in United States, Sergio's parents moved to the U.S. illegally to...

As the junior senator from Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum shepherded welfare reform through the U.S. Senate in 1996. Given his limited tenure — he’d been elected to the Senate only two years before — the fact that Majority Leader Bob Dole selected Santorum to lead the effort is nothing short of remarkable, Santorum’s former colleagues say. It also is a testament to an overlooked virtue of the ex-senator’s: his pragmatism.

Freshman Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) on Wednesday evening praised the Republican Party for consistently fighting for individual freedom over the last 150 years, and criticized Democrats for pursuing "handouts" to the less fortunate that he said are a modern form of slavery. "Our party firmly believes in the safety net," West said in a late Wednesday floor speech. "We reject the idea of the safety net becoming a hammock. "For this reason, the Republican value of minimizing government dependence is particularly beneficial to the poorest among us," he continued. "Conversely, the Democratic appetite for ever-increasing redistributionary handouts is in fact...

ART CASHIN: The Unemployed Are Now Going On Disability And It's Costing The Government Billions Sam RoFebuary 14, 2012 In this morning's Cashin's Comments, Art Cashin points to some disturbing research regarding the recent bump in disability benefit applications: I’m Sick Of Being Unemployed - A couple of strange and rather disquieting reports circulated among the Friends of Fermentation yesterday. The topic was unemployment or, more specifically, where do those people go who have stopped looking for work. Their absence is credited with distorting the unemployment rate and making it lower than most expect or believe. The reports I allude...

Skyrocketing food-stamp enrollments over the last few years have played a notable role in this year’s presidential race, but it’s not just food stamps that have exploded — it’s entitlements, generally: housing subsidies, Medicaid rolls, college loans and much, much more. And the trend is threatening to chip away at the very pillars that keep America’s civil society functioning. Today, one in five Americans — 67 million of us, all told — rely on federal aid in obtaining housing, food, income, health care or education. The dependent population has been growing for years, of course. But the “Index of Dependence...

Last year, a federal program paid out $1.6 billion to cover free cell phones and the monthly bills of 12.5 million wireless accounts. The program, overseen by the FCC and intended to help low-income Americans, is popular for obvious reasons, with participation rising steeply since 2008, when the government paid $772 million for phones and monthly bills. But observers complain that the program suffers from poor oversight, in which phones go to people who don't qualify, and hundreds of thousands of those who do qualify have more than one phone.

Point of Order No. 4,321,458: A recent study released by the Heritage Foundation states that the depedency index under President Obama has grown an astounding 23% during his reign er I mean presidency. In just a mere two years 67 million (yes that's MILLION) people are now relying on federal aid in one form or another. Investors.com explains "In 2010, for the first time ever, average spending on dependence programs per recipient exceeded the country's per-capita disposable income." The Left would have you believe that the reason behind this spike is mainly the crap economy, but WE'RE NOT BUYING IT....

The American public's dependence on the federal government shot up 23% in just two years under President Obama, with 67 million now relying on some federal program, according to a newly released study by the Heritage Foundation.

New York (CNNMoney) - More than one in three Americans lived in households that received Medicaid, food stamps or other means-based government assistance, according to a new report. And when Social Security, Medicare and unemployment benefits are included, nearly half of the nation lived in a household that received a government check, according to the analysis of third-quarter 2010 Census data done by the Mercatus Center at George Washington University. That's more than 148 million Americans.

A Florida lawmaker is pushing a bill that would ban the use of food stamps to purchase snacks and sweets, such as cookies and cakes. Republican State Sen. Ronda Storms, of Valrico, says her goal is to stop a small percentage of recipients who misuse food stamps. Her bill would also require food stamp recipients to take state-run classes on healthy eating and how making your own baked goods is cheaper than store-made sweets. The bill is moving through state committees in Tallahassee. Critics say the government shouldn't be telling people what to eat.

President Obama was trying to bring Jesus in as a class warfare warrior today, saying that as a Christian, Jesus expected him to fleece the rich: The rich should pay more not only because “I actually think that is going to make economic sense, but for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that ‘for unto whom much is given, much shall be required,’” Obama said at the Washington Hilton, delivering remarks at an annual event that every president has attended since Dwight D. Eisenhower. “We can all benefit from turning to our Creator, listening to him,”...

So, we shouldn’t worry about the poor because we have a welfare state that keeps them on a crutch (or “a float”). I understand that his focus is on the middle class and that he believes these were the people hurt the most by the financial situation in America, but is the underlying philosophy here to just “fix holes” in the “safety net” or should we be trying to fix the entitlement mentality that helped pull us into this debt? This should be red meat for Newt who worked to reform welfare. Some are defending this as being taken out...

Newt Gingrich on Wednesday ripped GOP front-runner Mitt Romney for comments he made about not caring about the poor. Gingrich went on to say he's "fed up with politicians in either party dividing Americans against each other." Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7397249n#ixzz1lBB3wXIy

Standing Athwart History Yelling "Thank You Sir, May I Have Another." It is days like today that make me thankful I think they all suck. At least I’m thankful I’m in the firmly not Romney camp. Having told us only Romney was viable (with half-nods to Huntsman and Santorum) and having trotted out Elliot Abrams to smear Newt Gingrich with out of context quotes, even National Review is having trouble defending their candidate today. This morning Mitt Romney said he wasn’t concerned about the poor. The poor, after all, have food stamps and Medicaid. But don’t worry. If the safety...

Money meant to help families on welfare provide the necessities of life are apparently being used inappropriately by some recipients.

I got this in my email this morning and was struck by how relevant it remains even today. It may be a clever fakery but it's still pretty good.

House GOP seeks to bar the use of welfare funds at strip clubsBy Russell Berman - 01/31/12 01:47 PM ET House Republicans don’t want Uncle Sam paying for any more lap dances. A bill that GOP leaders are bringing to the House floor Wednesday would require states to prevent welfare recipients from accessing or spending their benefits at strip clubs, casinos and liquor stores. Republicans included the proposal in the payroll tax bill the House passed in December, and are bringing it back up for a vote separately as part of a package of bills they want included in a...

I saw an article a little while ago that I believe said the state of Maine had more people on the dole than there were taxpayers. I have been trying to figure out how many of the 19,378,102 persons living in New York are pulling the cart verse riding. I have tried all sorts of searches and all sorts of sites but I can’t seem to get the numbers for my state (New York). I am sure these numbers were figured on the last census and I have searched the census site and can’t seem to get up to date...

Outrageous! The Government Is Giving Out Free Cell Phones And Free Cell Phone Minutes To Welfare RecipientsMichael SnyderJanuary 29, 2012 Did you know that the federal government is giving out free cell phones and free cell phone minutes to welfare recipients? It may be hard to believe, but it is true. Right now, there are companies that are running advertisements specifically targeted at low income Americans informing them of the fact that all they have to do is sign up and they can get a free cell phone and hundreds of free cell phone minutes every single month and it...

TOPEKA, Kan. - Some legislators said Wednesday they plan to review a state policy that has reduced or cut off food stamp benefits to hundreds of U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants...lawmakers acknowledged that they're sympathetic to Gov. Sam Brownback's administration trying to ensure that families with illegal immigrants aren't being treated more generously than families whose members are all legal residents. The administration said the change means all Kansas families are treated the same. ...lawmakers worry that the effect will be felt by children whose families were eligible for food stamps under the old standard but have since lost the...

Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg (1 April 1815 - 30 July 1898), better known as Otto von Bismarck, is credited with being the father of socialism, the modern-day welfare state. He said, "My idea was to bribe the working classes, or shall I say, to win them over, to regard the state as a social institution existing for their sake and interested in their welfare." Politicians were quick to see the power and simplicity of Bismarck's concept. Convincing the public that government existed for their sake and their welfare enabled politicians to expand into areas...

Scary stuff.