California has more recipients in key welfare category than next eight states combined

San Diego Union Tribune ^ | July 2, 2009 | Chris Reed

[BAW]

When I heard Assemblyman Chuck DeVore in a radio interview saying a never-discussed part of the budget debate was how California's failure to aggressively implement the 1996 federal welfare reform act had kept its welfare rolls far bigger than other states, I asked him to show me where he was getting his info. He pointed me to a federal web site detailing the program created by the 1996 law to help get people off government assistance and into jobs:

SNIP

32 percent were from California! 1,226,362! California has 36.8 million of the nation's 304 million people -- 12 percent. (I'm using this Census Bureau Excel chart for all population figures in this post.) So we have nearly three times the number of people in this welfare program as our state population would suggest.

It only gets more amazing from here. California has more welfare recipients in this program than the next eight states combined! States with a total population of 95.8 million.

1. California -- 1,226,362 recipients -- 36.8 million population 2. New York -- 252,434 recipients -- 19.5 million population 3. Ohio -- 178,652 recipients -- 11.5 million population 4. Michigan -- 154,985 recipients -- 10 million population 5. Tennessee -- 138,744 recipients -- 6.2 million population 6. Washington -- 122,477 recipients -- 6.5 million population 7. Indiana -- 117,987 recipients -- 6.4 million population 8. Texas -- 114,258 recipients -- 24.3 million population 9. Pennsylvania -- 113,826 recipients -- 12.4 million population

This is stunning stuff. I'll have more on this topic after I dig around to find out why California ended up such an extreme outlier when it came to successfully implementing the 1996 welfare reform law.

But for now, it sure looks like this is one more appalling example of state government dysfunction. . . .

[BAW]

A few days old . . searched, but didn't find it on FR.

This has amazing statistics on California as a welfare state. Facts and figures are hard to ignore . . . and good armament before engaging in any discussions with California liberals.

[umgud]

No doubt Amish recipients.

[behzinlea]

Amish, Mormons, conservative two-parent (mom and dad) families . . .

If only they would learn the value of self-reliance and hard work instead of expecting the government to suckle them!

[EternalVigilance]

Great article.

Kudoes to Chuck DeVore for publicizing the reality.

[Publius6961]

I need an aspirin before responding to this thread. Not that it's a surprise, but for a state where the legislators are wringing their hands and crying crocodile tears by the bucketful about the dismal future facing California's extreme poor...

Smells more and more like political Bullshit*, doesn't it?
Vote for me, and I'll make sure you are taken care of forever?

*BULLSHIT

[La Lydia]

"A democracy...can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy always followed by dictatorship."

-- Alexander Fraser Tyler, "The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic"

[Amerigomag]

1/3 of all US welfare recipients reside in California.

One can imagine how a consumption tax would change circumstances. Shifting the tax burden from produces to consumers could help recapture both state and federal tax dollars, give California's small businesses a reprieve from one of this nation's most confiscatory taxing schemes and provide just relief to the 5% of Californians who pay almost 90% of the state's income taxes.

[marsh2]

California allows parents to continue to receive money for dependent children long after their adult benefits have maxed out. As a northern County bordewring on Oregon, we see a steady stream of people coming south from Oregon and west from states who have no such extended benefits.

Welfare to work also presuposes work. California is the most regulatory state in the union in the natural resources industries. It is a fact that our local people have been put out of work in the forests, in mining, farming and ranching because of environmental regulations. The state and federal regulations have been dismantling our non-industrial economy over the past 20 years. As a consequence, we have high unemployment and welfare.

Perhaps backing off regulation, defunding regulation crazed bureaucracies like the regional water boards and dropping stupid initiatives like sustainable communities and climate change could get our budget and economies back on track.

[AuntB]

Yes, and the mess is directly connected to illegal and legal immigration.

More than 1 million people became citizens in 2008, with 780,000 taking the oath of allegiance in the first 10 months, according to preliminary figures from the Department of Homeland Security. I

Leading countries of birth of new citizens were:
Mexico (122,258), India (46,871), Philippines (38,830), China (33,134) and Vietnam (27,921)

Largest number of people naturalizing lived in:
California (181,684), New York (73,676) and Florida (54,563).
SOURCE: Office of Immigration Statistics, Department of Homeland Security
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/WestVolusia/wvlHEAD03WEST012209.htm

Study: Illegal Immigrants Having More Kids In US Associated Press ^ | April 14, 2009
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/money/19175382/detail.html

Growing numbers of children of illegal immigrants are being born in this country, and they are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty than those with American-born parents...

Overall, illegal immigrants’ children account for one of every 15 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. In 2008, California had the most illegal immigrants at 2.7 million, double its 1990 number, followed by Texas, Florida, New York and New Jersey.

[John Jorsett]

I just downloaded the data and did some analysis on my own. As of September 2008, the latest month available, California had 3.3% of its population on Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. Next highest was Tennessee with 2.2% followed by Washington DC with 2.0%. The average for all states and DC was 1.1%. Here's a chart I made with the results. You can see how much higher California is than the rest.

[fatrat]

yeah, and a little off-shore drilling couldn’t hurt either.

[ASOC]

How do you expand the graphic? Only 26 states are listed - I expect by some compression of the chart.

Clicking on the chart took me to some odd site.

thanks.

[DoughtyOne]

I’m afraid the rest of our citizens still don’t get it.

“Aw it’s California’s fault. Thank God someone pointed this out!”

Californians have been trying to tell folks this for decades. It’s astounding to read the astonishment on this thread after all this time. Good fricken grief! For God’s sake pull your head out folks.

Look at those numbers in your post. They tell anyone with half a brain what the problem is.

1. Mexicans are being naturalized at more than two and a half times the rate of the nearest other nationality
2. The largest number of naturalized people lived in California

Do people think government funds are only provided to U.S. Citizens? Why yes they do.

Hell the California government is as brain dead as the rest of the nation on the matter too.

I’ve given up on the issue of illegal immigration. It is going to be the death of this nation. We may even have a president who is an illegal immigrant, and folks still don’t understand that it’s an issue.

[Lancey Howard]

Makes sense - - the more junkies (welfare parasites) there are, the better for the dealers (politicians).

[John Jorsett]

The graphic is a static JPG image that I copied from the Excel spreadsheet and uploaded to a photo-hosting web site. I didn't want to make the chart wide enough to name all the states because I thought it would be too wide. However, if you want to see every state, here's one that does that:

[ASOC]

Thanks so much! Can’t tell the players without a program as they say at the ball park.

Thanks again.

[REPANDPROUDOFIT]

Perhaps backing off regulation, defunding regulation crazed bureaucracies like the regional water boards and dropping stupid initiatives like sustainable communities and climate change could get our budget and economies back on track.

Good luck with that! In the last week alone, I have read about two NEW initiatives by the liberal elite in California which will drastically affect consumer prices, jobs and product availability.

California air regulators voted unanimously Thursday for a mandate requiring auto manufacturers to include sun-reflecting glass on all vehicles sold within the state by 2014.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2280237/posts

Los Angeles will eliminate the use of electricity made from coal by 2020, replacing it with power from cleaner renewable energy sources

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2285325/posts

California policy makers continue to stick their noses in the air and act in direct opposition to the interests of the consumer. And don't for a minute think that we (the rest of the nation) won't end up paying for it.