I am a proud conservative right down to my bones, but ending welfare is where I get off. Having a welfare net is one of things that adds to the greatness of our country. The fact that some number of people abuse the system is no reason to end it. Just ending it is a cowardly way to govern. We have to have the courage to enforce the laws we have and make it even harder to cheat.
I am not sure that the problem with welfare is that some people cheat the system. The problem is the system itself. Whatever the intentions of Congress, the system they created encourages people to be idle and dependent on others. This would be so even if everyone adhered strictly to the rules.
I get off thinking about ending welfare.
I must disagee. The Welfare system does NOT make our country great. Quite the opposite. While we should have a basic social net to support those who truly need it (such as poor elderly), the Welfare system, as an institution, encourages and, in fact, rewards sloth and irresponsibility. The vast majority of people on welfare are young or middle aged, and nearly 1/3 of them are illegal aliens. The welfare system itself, as it is designed, allows this. It is deeply corrupt and inefficient. Cheating is only part of the problem.
The US taxpayer has footed the bill for welfare for DECADES and we as a nation have almost nothing to show for it. Minorities who have been economically successful over the last 40 years have done so OUTSIDE of the welfare system, not because of it.
But reforming the welfare system would require genuine backbone in Congress. Our nation has become so feminized, so averse to discipline, that I doubt it will ever happen. Congress fears the poor and the politically correct. We live in a Tyranny of the Unproductive.
Our country was great before welfare and would be again without it. I think welfare is a horrible idea that encourages sloth and immorality.
Ending all Federal welfare is a good idea.
The welfare "net" creates a dependency on the gub'mint and destroys families.
The proper level for welfare to be handled at is at the state level - or lower (community, church, and family would be best...). Cutting illegal aliens off from the welfare teat is another good idea.
We've always had those things -- we just used to call them "charity" instead of "taxpayer-funded entitlements."
One of the biggest ironies about the illegal immigration debate is that the primary economic "cost" these people incur in this country is the burden they place on taxpayer-funded institutions (public schools, public hospitals, etc.) that have no place in a truly free, independent nation.
This sentence is completely oxymoronic.