Perry’s going to be slapped down with that statement. Texas has a huge welfare program. I used to share an office with the welfare office and their secretary quit after figuring out that welfare clients took home more than she did in her state of Texas paycheck. Also, how many illegals is Texas funding with welfare? Throw in all the “free” school breakfasts and lunches and yes, Garadsil is being given for “free” by public school nurses. How many illegals are on the Texas welfare lists? How about those same illegals paying in-state college tuition? Sorry, Perry, but look in the mirror, you can’t play holier than thou on this topic. Typical Perry campaign talk.
Your post illustrates how much the Federal Government’s mandatory programs have overwhelmed States’ governance.
Note how the Governors of Arizona; Brewer and Wisconsin are being bullied by this Administration’s Cabinet/Departments.
Perry’s going to be slapped down with that statement.
In the general election that is one thing but in the GOP Primary I don’t think there are a significant number of voters that would slap him down over that position.
FYI When Texas became one of the first states in the nation to overhaul welfare by insisting the poor work, the governor made a bold prediction.
"I believe this bill will make Texas a much better place," Gov. George W. Bush said at the June 1995 bill signing.
If issuing fewer welfare checks means better, then Texas has succeeded. But Texas' welfare-to-work success masks a growing poverty problem that, critics say, has little to do with the writing of paltry checks and much to do with the state's historical resistance to offering services to those in need.
More than a decade after Bush signed the bill into law, the number of people receiving a Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, check has fallen 73 percent.
Today, fewer than 5 percent, or about 173,000 of the state's 4 million poor children and adults, receive checks, a maximum of $223 monthly for a mother and two children.
Officials appear on track to eliminate the traditional welfare check for good.
"That would be my goal," said Larry Temple, executive director of the Texas Workforce Commission, the agency tapped to move welfare recipients into the work world. "To work us out of that job, that would be a great success."
Texas has moved thousands of poor single mothers into the work force, but their average wage of $7.19 an hour isn't lifting them out of poverty. Officials say that benefits, including child care, Medicaid, federal tax credits and food stamps, help provide a safety net, but charities often have to fill the needs of these women, who represent the majority of those on welfare.
Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, a Kerrville Republican who authored the 1995 bill, said he's satisfied that lawmakers did change the culture of dependence and replace it with one that relied on work. "At this point, the reduction in welfare rolls is a resounding and unquestionable success," he said. Hilderbran blames some of the growth in poverty on illegal immigration, which is borne out by demographic trends. (Illegal immigrants cannot receive TANF funds, and very few legal ones can.
(Excepts from the Houston Chronicle 2007)
“Perry’s going to be slapped down with that statement. Texas has a huge welfare program.”
Fine. He can take the heat. He’s right. Food stamps are NOT economic stimulus, they are dependency, and we need to reduce it as much as possible.
“I used to share an office with the welfare office and their secretary quit after figuring out that welfare clients took home more than she did in her state of Texas paycheck. Also, how many illegals is Texas funding with welfare?”
none legally. Perry will get hit from both sides. Texas, like all states, provides food stamps, medicaid, etc. But they are less generous than other states.
Safety net is there for those in need.
Not to mention the $368 M dollars in taxpayer funded and failed corporate welfare he's engaging in for jobs that fail to materialize.
We Texans have our own version of Obama style stimulus going on here thanks to Perry.