[supercat]

AND most of her rent is paid by "federal subsidies" (a.k.a. you and me and all the other hardworking folks who didn't go out and have 6 kids by age 26 on an income of $15,000).

Exactly what welfare and related benefits is someone earning $15,000 allowed to receive? I don't want to dispute your point, but I am curious.

[Fraulein]

BTTT

[Uncle Sausage]

The criteria for these handouts is not only the annual income, but also the number of dependents in the family. With six dependents, she could probably earn $30K and still be eligible for all the freebies.

[optimistically_conservative]

You may find your answers at the links below. I'd like to know how much of her $15,000 income is already tax funded.

http://www.financeprojectinfo.org/win/dataportal.asp

For example, try the link below and type $7.20/hr for 40 hr days, 52 weeks.
http://www.connect2jobs.org/connect2cash/

[GovernmentShrinker]

I don't know exactly, but with six kids I imagine quite a bit. Also, it doesn't sound as if she's still making $15K -- I think that's what she made before quitting to do random sewing work at home (which she was free to do, since all the benefits were readily available to her). Even while making $15K, I expect that her benefits included housing subsidy (usually requires that the head of household pay 1/4 of their income towards rent, with the rest made up by the feds -- and a home big enough to meet federal requirements for six kids probably costs a lot more than 1/4 of $15K per year), Medicaid coverage for the kids and maybe for herself as well, and food stamps.

Needless to say, if you make $15K and refrain from having children, you're sh*t out of luck, and if you stop at one or two you'll get very little help. This is one of many reasons why I'm absolutely 100% pro-choice and in favor of public funding of abortions. The practice of using children as hostages to get money from people who work is leading us down the road to full-blown socialism at high speed (do you think ANY of those kids will vote for welfare cuts when they grow up?), and expecting totally irresponsible people to use contraceptives reliably is simply ludicrous. The best we can hope for is to get the message out to them that if they get pregnant, they have to get unpregnant fast (at public expense, since they won't have the cash handy, since they spent it all on clothes and booze), or their baby will be immediately and permanently confiscated the first time they ask for public assistance (mandatory sterilization at that point would be a good idea too, but I know I'm just dreaming on that one). If we don't give them the option of getting unpregnant fast, then we're heartless beasts for confiscating their innocent little children "just because their parents are poor", and they'll play this to the hilt at the next election, to get all their socialist candidates elected (none of whom will be anti-abortion, ironically).

[glory]

super, I think it depends on the number of dependents you have as well. For example food stamps(just off the top of my head) is somewhere around 24k for a family of 4--so this woman qualifies for quite a bit in food stamps. As for section 8, some of my hubbies neices and nephews who are just as irresponsible as this young lady are getting it and they all work. One couple is even married, but most make out on it because they live with the father(of one of their kids) but claim they are single mothers so most are making in the neighborhood really of 35-40k and then get all of the handouts too because the other income isn't reported. I'm telling you, this thing is a racket, it really is.