Census confirms: 63 percent of ‘non-citizens’ on welfare, 4.6 million households

A majority of “non-citizens,” including those with legal green card rights, are tapping into welfare programs set up to help poor and ailing Americans, a Census Bureau finding that bolsters President Trump’s concern about immigrants costing the nation.

Poverty in the U.S. Was Plummeting—Until Lyndon Johnson Declared War On It

During the 20 years before the War on Poverty was funded, the portion of the nation living in poverty had dropped to 14.7% from 32.1%. Since 1966, the first year with a significant increase in antipoverty spending, the poverty rate reported by the Census Bureau has been virtually unchanged…

Simple math shows how poor people get trapped in poverty:

The potential sum of welfare benefits can reach $47,894 annually for single-parent households and $41,237 for two-parent households. Welfare benefits will be available to some households earning as much as $74,880 annually… A single mom has the most resources available to her family when she works full time at a wage of $8.25 to $12 an hour. Disturbingly, taking a pay increase to $18 an hour can leave her with about one-third fewer total resources (net income and government benefits). In order to make work “pay” again, she would need an hourly wage of $38 to mitigate the impact of lost benefits and higher taxes.

Trump pitches plan to replace food stamps with food boxes

What a great idea!

13 Alabama counties saw 85 percent drop in food stamp participation after work requirements restarted

Surprise!

Among the 13 counties, there were 5,538 adults ages 18-50 without dependents receiving food stamps as of Jan. 1, 2017. That number dropped to 831 - a decline of about 85 percent - by May 1, 2017.

The Danish Model – don’t try this at home

Interesting essay.

So, Denmark first became rich, and then introduced the programs, which make up the welfare state. The huge increase in government spending has been accompanied by deep structural problems, which has made it necessary to reform the Danish economy and welfare state ever since. It can hardly be claimed that introducing the welfare state made Denmark rich; rather it was the other way around. Denmark first became rich, and then authorities began to redistribute some of the wealth. ...

In many respects, Denmark could serve as a model for the World (just like most other countries). But if you fail to learn the right lessons, it could be dangerous to try to imitate our model. Especially the idea that you can become rich by redistributing wealth or that there is a gentler way to socialism than the one experienced by typical socialist countries in general could get you into trouble.

And it would certainly be ironic, if the Danish case were to become an excuse for politicians in e.g. Greece or the US to avoid economic reforms, and fiscal consolidation, since we have been reforming and consolidating for decades to handle the problems created by the introduction of the welfare state.

It seems to be the path that the US is following.

Here is all you need to know about the Greek crisis.

Here's what George Papadopoulus, a 52-year old living in Dalston, London, sent in:

I am 52 years old, and get a Pension of €1,400 per month, and dont know if i will get the next payment. I would vote NO, i have been retired since the age of 50 and get the money sent from Greece, and can use the council Gyms in London for free, free meals on wheels from Hackney Council, it is a good life.

And

Another response from Ioannis:

I vote for yes and I totally agree with Nikos.

There's something you can't understand unless you live in Greece. In this country we have communism not capitalism, but still everyone blames capitalism.

Everyone lives from the state. Even the private sector lives from the state in many ways, for example by not paying taxes and not getting punished for that.

I was in the Greek university for many years (diploma + MSc) and I experienced the terrorism of the leftists every single day. Supporting a different opinion is a reason for them to use physical and psychological violence against you. The universities are occupied by student/wannabe politicians (PM Tsipras was one of them) for several months per year. I won't continue, because I may say things that will sound unreal to you and lose credibility.

One last thing: Not wanting reforms goes against the human nature of desiring the development. I believe my nation needs a different education and this has to start from school, where kids should learn how to be good people, not how to be good communists.

Greece appears to be a country in denial. It's one large college campus full of entitled people who have no idea how anything is made, why anyone needs to work to stock grocery store shelves. That ATM machines don't fill themselves. Imagine a whole country on welfare and you see Greece.

Connie Phillips explains why the poor should buy “…cookies, chips, energy drinks, soft drinks, seafood, or steak” with your money. Oh, wait ....

Connie Phillips, wife of Democrat Sherrod Brown (D- Ohio) is outraged that Christians don’t want the poor to use their welfare money to buy “…cookies, chips, energy drinks, soft drinks, seafood, or steak.” She goes on for another 700 words to accuse Christians of “oppressing the poor.”

I read to the end and was waiting for her defense of “the poor” using your tax dollars and mine to buy junk food and luxury items that are now being priced out of the reach of the non-poor who are supporting the poor. The reason never comes. It’s just one of those things that are so obvious to Liberals that no reason is needed. 

Obviously the poor should be able to use your money to buy lobster and steak. Obviously cookies, chips, energy drinks and soft drinks are part of the staples that the poor need to live. To deny them the right to use your money to buy them proves that you are a bad Christian and a hypocrite.

Connie's husband, Sherrod Brown, is best known for accusing President Obama of sexism after Obama suggested that Elizabeth Warren didn’t know what she was talking about in opposing the TPP trade deal.

Advice to Republicans: run against plutocrats, crony capitalists and welfare chislers

The Democrats are now the party of the ultra-rich silicon valley billionaires, wealthy Hollywood fat cats, Al Sharpton and Al Sharpton wanna bees, and crony capitalists like GE's Jeff Immelt.  They have demonized the average American, labeling them "bitter clingers." 

Believing that a coalition of Blacks, Hispanics and college professors who disdain Americans, like Jonathan Gruber, constitute an electoral majority, they have become identified as the party of the  greedy rich, government power, welfare and contempt for working Americans. 

That leaves the real American majority ready to be scooped up by the Republican party if they only have the wit to see it.  They don't need, in fact they should shun, the people in the coalition that Obama built.   The other America gave Republicans an overwhelming vote in 2014.  The worst thing Republicans in office can do at this point is to turn it's back on them.  Because if they do, they will, like a jilted lover, find someone who wants them.  This is the point at which a third party can easily become a real possibility.  

Those "youths" on the border.

Let’s assume for a moment that the youths pouring across the border say who they say they are. So what do you do if you are a young kid from Honduras and want to escape the violence in your country? Let’s look at a map.

How about going to the country next door? That would be El Salvador Nicaragua, Guatemala, or beautiful and peaceful Costa Rica. These so called refugees from drug violence, did not seek asylum in any of the neighboring countries much easier to reach. No. They travelled over 1000 miles before ending up at the US border.

On the way they travelled the length of Mexico, a country that funneled them, including apparently known criminal elements, to the US border. That is a hostile act, but Mexico is always ready to help America commit suicide.

So why are they here? Simple. They were asked to come. They were enticed. They were given a script to "prove" they were fleeing violence.  By Obama. 

Because while most of Central America is peaceful, so peaceful that they attract American retirees, they don’t have the American hammock known as the “social safety net.”

No one with a shred of intelligence doubts that these people will soon have paperwork that makes them indistinguishable from American citizens. It’s only a matter of a few months before they are eligible for welfare and enrolled to vote for Democrats. It’s apparently easier to create a Blue state by importing your voters from outside the country than persuading the same old, same old to go to the polls and vote a few times each.

Meanwhile you can expect the Holder "Justice" Department to sue any state that requires people to prove they are eligible to vote.   

I'd Like Your Vote

As a follow up to the shooting in the Military Circle Mall by a black mob, I ran across an essay by Daniel Greenfield (Sultan Knish) "Our state of Police" which analyzes the situation from an interesting perspective.

I'm disturbed about the increasing militarization of the police. It's a poor police force indeed that does hot have a SWAT Team and one or more mini-tanks and heavy weapons.  But, as Greenfield points out, we're not living in a police state.  Not yet.

But when the story about what's actually happening in places like the Military Circle Mall - which gets out via the grapevine or via news reports like WND despite the Virginian Pilot's attempts to keep the public in the dark - you want the police to intervene; to stop rampant thuggery by gangs of thugs.

And why is the lone cop not enough to prevent this?  Here's the brutal truth:

In the United States, it's not the populations that drift in and out of jail who find the police terrifying, but those who don't. There is no police state for the former. The middle class citizen looks warily through the window of his home like the bars of a cage but when the cop car drives through a bad neighborhood, it's the police officers inside who feel like they are in a cage. The police state is about control and our state of police exists to control the areas that are becoming uncontrollable.

These gangs are  not afraid of the police, the police are afraid of the gangs.  And it's more than the fact that they are out numbered.  The people who make up these gangs, and their parents, grandparents and friends represent a powerful political constituency and they have their own representative on city council who will quickly accuse the police of racism if they try to establish some rules.    

What we have is a problem of failed societies, both at home and abroad. Some of these societies encompass entire countries while others are limited to a city or a neighborhood. In these places the social contract has broken down. The only thing that keeps the people living in them from killing each other is the threat of naked force, the vendetta and the lynch mob and honor and shame.

The welfare state created the gangs and the rest of the community responded by enabling the welfare state while also increasing the power of the police.   Its a self-reinforcing cycle that will end, but we don't know where.

Obama Democrats’ troubling view on work

Among its many stamps, the Postal Service has a series called “Made in America, Building a Nation.” The strip of “forever” stamps is a collection of iconic photographs of 20th-century industry featuring men and women toiling on railroads, skyscrapers and factory floors.

A celebration of work and workers, the series quotes Helen Keller saying, “The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”

My, oh, my, how times have changed. America now has a government that views work as a trap and celebrates those who escape it.

People who are not dependent of government hand-outs are harder to control.

All true and yet, as Carney’s defense showed, something much, much larger is at play. The impacts are symptoms. The disease is that leading Democrats view fewer workers and more dependency as a good thing. That attitude largely explains slow economic growth, record-low labor rates and the explosion of handouts over the last five years.

This anti-job, pro-dependency tilt is the crux of the nation’s polarization. In essence, it pits those who believe in the sanctity of work against those who believe in penalizing wealth and redistributing its fruits.

Not all Democrats agree with that approach, but the party is now controlled by those who do. It is the party that celebrates subsidies and rewards states for getting more people on food stamps. It opens the door wider for disability payments and fights for unemployment benefits like it once fought for jobs. It does these things not because of an emergency but because of a warped ideology.

Obama Nation: " ...dream of a life of care-free welfare dependency."

Bud Norman writes a wickedly delicious column about the CBO report that predicts that ObamaCare will mean that 2.5 million will lose their full-time jobs.

The report projects that the law will result in the loss of 2.5 million full-time equivalent jobs in the next decade, leave 31 million people still without health insurance but paying for the privilege, add $1.4 trillion to the federal deficit, cause millions of Americans to lose the health insurance plans that they liked, and wind up costing the average American money out of his paycheck. Given that the law’s eponymous president repeatedly promised that it would spur economic activity, insure everyone, wouldn’t add a single dime to the deficit, anyone who liked his health insurance plan could keep it, and the average American would wind up with an extra $2,500 in his paycheck, it seems fair to say that things aren’t going as intended.

He then unloads on the hapless Jay Carney, who - and you can't make this up - actually tries to sell the idea that losing your job is a good idea:

By far the most entertaining portion of White House spokesman Jay Carney’s juggling act was his insistence that the 2.5 million lost jobs is proof the law’s unexpected success. After correctly noting that the report does not blame the job losses on disincentives for employers to provide jobs, and without noting that it also said such an effect might well occur when the delayed employer-mandate at last kicks in after the mid-term elections, Carney seemed proud that CBO found the initial job losses would result from Obamacare’s disincentives for employees to accept low-wage jobs rather than relinquish their health care subsidies and other benefits. As Carney thus explains it, those 2.5 million lost jobs mean “Americans would no longer be trapped in a job just to provide coverage for their families, and would have the opportunity to pursue their dreams.

Any Americans who don’t dream of a life of care-free welfare dependency probably wouldn’t put it in such poetic terms”

While it may seem ridiculous to us now, but to the Left's Left who are in thrall to the writings of Karl Marx, not having a job is actually the ideal goal.

“In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic.”

Of course this was written by a man who didn't hunt, fish, or rear cattle.  Instead he spent his time in the library.  And who is this "society" who regulates the general production?  In the mind of the Left that would be the hordes or regulators that go forth like Viking raiders from academia via Washington. 

Of course the Obama Palace Guard (formerly known as the press) immediately swung into action telling us that the "free money" coming from Obama's Stash makes it a great thing that more people can now go on the dole.  We can hardly wait for them to go hunt, fish, herd cattle and become critics after dinner.  Yeah, that's what they will do.  Here's a handy chart from Zero Hedge.

Woman, 61, Tells Cops A Man Named Ted Stole Her "Obama Phone"

A South Carolina woman told cops that a male acquaintance stole “her government issued ‘Obama Phone’” and a pair of DVDs from her residence, according to a police report.

Rosa Clowney, a 61-year-old Spartanburg resident, told officers that she had invited a man named “Ted” over to her house Thursday night to watch a pair of movies she had borrowed from the library (“Act of Valor” and “The Bourne Identity”).

She had no further information about "Ted."

Is the Republican Party the party of Conservatives?

At National Review Online, Jim Geraghty asks the question: Does the RNC Deserve the Blame for Cuccinelli’s Loss? One of the comments following the essay claims that "all Republicans are Conservatives."

 

Are they?  I strongly disagree.

The national candidates that the Republicans have fielded since Reagan have all claimed to be conservative, talked the talk, but did not walk the walk. They paid lip service to smaller government and lower deficits but did nothing to achieve those objectives while in office, or were rejected at the polls.

 

I remind you that Bush 1 opposed Reagan for the nomination the first time he ran.  And that when he was elected as Reagan’s heir disposed of his followers as quickly as possible and then raised taxes, giving the Democrats their main talking point to defeat him for re-election.  Need I remind you that Bush 2, who I supported because I supported the Iraq war, created a whole new entitlement and was a profligate spender who created TARP? Both Bushes bought into the “Republicans are mean” myth, one creating those “thousand points of light” and the other trying to sell “kindler, gentler?”

 

And how about McCain who pandered to every liberal institution and movement that that he could find: amnesty, global warming, Gitmo. He was the MSM’s picture of the perfect Republican. Of course they only supported him until he was nominated. The only conservative thing he ever did was bring Sarah Palin onto his ticket. The same Sarah Palin whose back still shows the scars of McCain’s handlers’ knives.  It's hard to say who tried to damage Palin more during the 2008 election, Team McCain or Team Obama.

 

George Romney was a truly nice man; moral, upright and no one’s idea of a conservative. When he was questioned about his conservative credentials he said that he was “severely conservative.”  When you have to say that, you are not. He was chosen by the Republican establishment precisely because no one would really identify him as a genuine conservative. Rather, he was the competent alternative to Obama. How did that work out?

Did these people lie? Not in the same way Obama lied when he said that you could keep your health care plan. But they say what they want you to hear. There is a cultural gap between the Republican establishment and the conservative base. The establishment is more comfortable with the reigning orthodoxy as expressed by Obama and less comfortable with the pieties of the Right. Most of them probably agree with Obama about the “bitter clingers.” Most of them don’t really believe that marriage should be defined as between one man and one woman; they have “evolved.” Most of them would rather open the borders so that this issue would go away. They have lived with deficit spending so long that it no longer really bothers them as a fact, simply as an issue to be used to win votes. They campaign as conservatives because that’s where their base is, but when they get back to Washington, they shed their conservative disguises like you would take off your jacket except when it’s time to throw a bone to the base.

 

It's very difficult to gain prominence while defying the dominant culture.  This is especially true on the political arena because you are opposed by those who dominate the avenues of communication.  If you say you support traditional marriage, the media tells everyone that you are homophobic.  If you oppose abortion for any reason you are waging a war on women.  If you oppose waste and corruption in welfare programs you are accused of wanting to starve the poor.  If you want to enforce the immigration laws you are accused of hating immigrants and minorities.  If you want to make education more affordable by reducing the cost you are accused of being anti-children.  And the ones making the accusations are not your political opponents, but the supposedly "impartial" media.  One of the interesting statistics coming out of the election in Virginia is that Ken Cuccinelli got the majority of married men and married women.  As one wag put it he got the moral vote.

 

The commenter is wrong about his assertion, but raises a very good question. Who is a real conservative and how can you tell? What is a real conservative? That’s a question worth debating.

The US Treasury as the Birthright of All Mankind

The Diplomad tells us about the ways that American "public assistance" is sent overseas.  This is just part of the story.

US public assistance money going to foreign recipients is, however, not a new development. As a young consular officer in Guyana in the late 1970s, I had my own encounter with this phenomenon. One hot, muggy day (are there any other kind in Guyana?) while on the visa counter, I received an application for a tourist visa from a very nice elderly lady. She had prior visas, and normally we would not have interviewed somebody like her, and just issued the visa, but I was struck by the reason she gave for her trip to New York. According to her application and to her accompanying adult daughter, she needed to go there for post surgery care.

Seeing that the applicant had no significant resources, I asked how this medical care was to be funded. The daughter smiled and pulled out a thick wad of papers, mostly letters and receipts. She said, "The City of New York wants her to come for the appointment." She did not lie. She handed me a letter from the NYC Department of Social Services addressed to her mother at her mother's Guyana address, reminding the elderly lady that she needed to return to NY for an appointment so that the doctors' could evaluate whether the surgery they had performed on her--at public expense--had worked. I asked the daughter, "Where does your mother live?" The answer, "In Guyana." Young and naive, I could not understand, "Why is the City of New York paying for her surgery and post-op care?" The daughter seemed taken aback by the stupidity of my question, "They send her money every month." She gave me receipts showing that for several years the mother had been receiving public assistance checks sent to her Guyana address; she would send the checks back to NY for deposit in a bank there. Mom, apparently, on a trip years ago had applied for and gotten public assistance from the City, eventually returned to Guyana, and continued to receive the funds. Livid, I turned down the visa application, made copies of all the documents, and wrote an angry letter to the relevant NYC agencies.

The next day, before I had posted my indignant letter to NY alerting them to this fraud--this was before internet--I got calls from the staff of a well-known NYC Congressman and another from some drone in the NYC welfare bureaucracy. Both callers were very upset with my refusal to issue the visa, accusing me of racism, being anti-poor, etc., and let me know that my superiors at State would be notified about my attitude. I kept blurting out, "But . . . she's living in Guyana and getting American taxpayer assistance . . ." as though that would trigger some logical thought sequence in my favor. All to no avail. I was the reincarnation of Eichmann. This went on for weeks, letters, calls, new visits from the mother and daughter, pleas from her doctor in NY, etc. The State visa wonks contacted me, took my story, and truth be told, never tried to change my decision, supporting my refusal to issue on the grounds of what then was called 212 (A) (15), likely to become a public charge.

Read the whole thing and the comments.  It opens up w whole new world of corruption.

The EBT rap by MrEBT

Obama economy perfectly illustrated when EBT goes down

Da Tech Guy goes shopping and notices that there are few black shoppers.  It turns out that the EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer = aka food stamps) system is down.

I hit a local supermarket to pick up a few things on the way home from work. Right away I noticed something was odd (especially on a Saturday afternoon before a Red Sox playoff game); the place seemed devoid of shoppers.

When I got to the deli counter I heard an announcement that explained it; EBT was down, and no EBT cards could be accepted. This was apparently a statewide problem.

Right after being told they were out of my wife’s favorite Sara Lee Oven Roasted Turkey breast, I finished my shopping and made note of the number of non-white customers. Normally at this location the majority of the customers would be Spanish, and I counted 3 non-white people, as if the clock had been turned back to the 80′s for the city.

EBT of course is not only the province of people of color. As I was leaving a person whose only color was provided by her heavily tattooed body was entering the store. As I was returning my carriage I saw her leaving empty-handed.

A computer glitch in other areas had different results.  It showed EBT cards with unlimited balances.

Via Natural News

When the federal EBT food stamp system suffered a critical failure on Saturday, local retailers were disconnected from the federal food stamp database that keeps track of how much credit is left on each individual EBT card. Seizing the opportunity provided by the glitch, EBT card holders in Louisiana ransacked their local Wal-Mart stores, stuffing their shopping carts full of groceries and "paying" for them with near-empty EBT cards that essentially had unlimited account balances because all accounting was offline.

When the EBT database came back online and card purchase limits were suddenly restored, EBT card holders abandoned their full carts and just walked away, probably miffed that they missed out on participating in the felony theft of groceries.

Da Tech Guy (Peter Ingeni) went to three separate store to try to get some Sarah lee turkey breast for his wife and made this observation.

I shop in these markets on a regular basis and normally they are totally integrated, but the bottom line is with the EBT card system down I could count the number of non-white customers in three supermarkets on the fingers of one hand & still have fingers left over.

Anecdotal evidence or no that’s a startling thing and if I was a liberal I’d be embarrassed by it, but not as embarrassed as I’d be if I was a person of color seeing this and asking myself:

Is not being able to buy food for our families without the government’s aid my community’s reward for giving Barack Obama our votes in overwhelming numbers?

If you want to be angry at me for saying something that’s true, that’s your call. But I submit and suggest that your anger is better directed at the administration that caused my statement to be true in the first place.

I tweeted out my observation which prompted the following reaction

Peter Ingemi ‏@DaTechGuyblog 12 Oct

#ebt system down in ma, on an unrelated note the customer mix at market basket was considerablly different than normal #unexpectedly

dmc ‏@violentfanon 12 Oct

.@DaTechGuyblog You are a piece of shit.

 

As someone remarked, the truth appears to be racist.

Beach Bum Happily Spends Your Money, Because: 'It's Awesome'

He's fine with it. Are your?

What do food stamps buy?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program, isn't telling.

I have a suspiction that I know why.