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California Considers Ditching Welfare
They never really mended it, so they may be forced to end it. There’s a bigger message for all of us.
California has proposed the previously and supposedly unthinkable: ending welfare.
Before you get too outraged (or perhaps excited), “welfare” specifically refers to a single but significant program known in the Golden State as CalWORKs. It is California’s version of the nation’s welfare reform effort. Known as Aid to Families with Dependent Children until 1996, traditional “welfare” changed its name to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) when Congress passed comprehensive reform. Then-President Bill Clinton, who had twice vetoed the legislation, finally signed it on the advice of then-adviser Dick Morris because “a third veto could [have] cost him the 1996 election.”
One has to go back to Ronald Reagan’s term as governor to find the last time this core entitlement program was really under control in the Golden State. As the late Paul Weyrich noted in a 2006 column, “Reagan managed significantly to cut welfare rolls while increasing support for those who really needed help.”
But by the mid-1990s, a mind-boggling 8% of the state’s residents, or almost 2.6 million people, were on the dole, almost double the percentage in the rest of the country.
Under welfare reform, the country’s bloated caseload dropped very quickly. In its first four years, about 2.5 million families came off the dole. In the vast majority of these families at least one adult entered the workforce. Huge numbers of formerly dependent tax consumers became economy-contributing taxpayers. This unprecedented mass transformation is an important but underappreciated element of the prosperity of the late 1990s.
During its first six years, welfare rolls came down in California at about the same rate as the rest of the nation. By the end of 2002, the number of families and total caseload in the state were down 47% and 55%, respectively, compared to 52% and 57% for the rest of the U.S. But as noted, California was starting from a much larger base. The state’s family and caseload declines should have been much, much steeper, but weren’t.
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Tom Blumer owns a training and development company based in Mason, Ohio, outside of Cincinnati. He presents personal finance-related workshops and speeches at companies, and runs BizzyBlog.com.
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57 Comments
1. Blackwater:Welfare needs to go. I’m all for giving people a helping hand when they fall on hard times. But this systematic creation of a leech class of people in our own society is disgusting and destructive and needed to end yesterday.
Jun 12, 2009 - 2:16 am 2. Mike2:If they end it watch the riots break out. When homes in Beverly Hills begin to burn we will see where the sympathies of the rich lefties really lie. There is a way out for California though. They can tax the rich at a 90% rate. That would hit the left-wing Hollywood and high tech crowd right where they deserve it.
Jun 12, 2009 - 3:18 am 3. robodeer9:About damned time.
Jun 12, 2009 - 3:59 am 4. Houdini:It seems to me that possibly there is no real choice given that the state is basically broke and has way to many entitlement programs including such programs where teacher are paid to not teach, and pensions that are out of control. Welfare is not contributing to revenue but taking from it, and now they need revenue and at the same time many are leaving the state which is making the problem even worse. They might just have to have the barest of services from the government along with cuts in pay and pensions also. Just have to wait and see what actually happens.
Jun 12, 2009 - 4:48 am 5. kadazalu:My bet is that the rest of the country will be bailing out California. Who will bail out the rest of the country when it happens to us?
Jun 12, 2009 - 6:20 am 6. Milwaukee Bill:The first fires of public panic will undoubtedly be started by the Democratic party’s military arm, ACORN. This could be ready made for a ‘community organizer’ to step up and gain national attention. The big question is will the Governator stand firm or cave? He will cave.The unions, Hollywood libs and assorted players will scream and scream and scream. Obama will threaten to remove more federal money. I can not see this actually happening, because if it did, it would show the massive problem with the Liberal establishment; they spend too much d@mn money!
Jun 12, 2009 - 6:21 am 7. Themistocles:Mike2 has a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature. There will be no riots and homes in Beverly Hills will not be burned by welfare recipients, who have other things to worry about. ACORN will rabble rouse — but 3% of the population isn’t going to force the other 97% to fork over more money.
Furthermore, there are alternatives to government cash handouts. Churches and other charities will help. The American people have always been generous — particularly conservatives, who give much, much more money to charity than liberals.
And who is really “poor” in America? It’s not like during the Depression, and the dust bowl migrations. In fact, there are very few truly destitute people in America:
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/images/b2064_chart1-lg.gif
Check out many other excellent charts showing what “poor” in America really means:
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/bg2064.cfm
There is nothing wrong with being ‘poor,’ or having poor folks in the country; it’s a clear incentive to improve. Liberals want poor people around. They want them so badly that they pay $billions for them. It’s time to admit that the liberals’ fix has failed.
Jun 12, 2009 - 6:29 am 8. Bohemond:California has always boasted of leading where the rest of the country will follow.
I fear they may be right: the Basket Case Formerly Known as the Golden State is exactly where ‘progressive’ policies are leading all of us.
Jun 12, 2009 - 6:34 am 9. anton:I am afraid that as goes California so goes the USA. Plus, when CA dumps welfare, these third and fourth generation leeches will just disperse to other area where benfits are available. One of the reasons that “the economic basketcase known as Michigan” (BTW I love that phrase even though I live there) is such a wreck is that the car companies paid huge taxes (until recently) to the State and the State paid huge sums to the useless. This is still dragging the state down. The reduction in Welfare cases here is the result of the hollowing-out of Detroit and Flint as the residents flee to warmer climes with better benefits.
The biggest dodge is that many of the people that have “left welfare” have become “disabled” and are now drawing Social Security at very young ages. One of the favorite games is to play at being bi-polar, here in Michigan that will net you a free place to live and $886.00 a month in SSI checks. The loss of Social Security deposits combined with the early start dates and long drawing period will very much advance the collapse of the Social Security Network, and with it our country’s financial existance.
Jun 12, 2009 - 6:39 am 10. Chris S:“Is it because of immigration, legal or otherwise? No way. The percentage of the population on welfare in Texas and Florida is less than half of what it is in the rest of the country excluding California.”
An Absolut Outrage
“A key player in the “Reconquista” movement is the National Council of La Raza. Its motto: “For the Race, everything. For those outside the Race, nothing.”"
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=292547767868120
La Raza -Chicano Activism in California
http://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc0904/article_766.shtml
What is MECha
Jun 12, 2009 - 6:59 am 11. David:http://www.mayorno.com/WhoIsMecha.html
California – the canary in the coal mine.
Jun 12, 2009 - 7:04 am 12. MAS1916:The late great nation – formerly known as the USA – will follow. By 2019, the USA will be so in debt that we won’t have a military budget, inflation will be massive and government will price control nearly all consumer products.
Like a horrible B movie, this story never seems to end.
David has it right though… California is showing us all what excessive taxation and spending will do. The US government is next and it will take a monumental effort to fix it all.
California’s budget crisis is indeed a bad movie. ( for a movie review of California Screaming, hit: http://firstconservative.com/blog/political-humor/political-humor-california-screaming-the-movie )
Jun 12, 2009 - 7:13 am 13. uburoisc:Welfare cut in California? Great news. It’s not like the government workers and the government retirees are going to concede a dime, so cut off the illegals.
Jun 12, 2009 - 7:14 am 14. Harry Schell:The basic structure of pay scales for government jobs…and Average of $85K annually vs. $45K in the private sector from similar work, has to be changed.
Cutting fire/police and other genuine services of government, even maintaining some level of legit welfare spending (CA is way off the scale of legit, do not misunderstand) would be feasible without the baseline cost of clerical employees and others paid for more with tax dollars than they would be with market rates.
Of course they support nationalizing health care…it won’t save any money but cost more as payrates skyrocket…this is another union payoff, taking away all market influences on pay rates and competence. Canada and the UK have horrible systems because the money is eaten up there.
LA Unified spends 85% of it budget on salaries. So when you hear about “short chaging the kids”, it comes out of paying teachers the highest wages in the country, not because enough money hasn’t been pumped into the system.
Jun 12, 2009 - 7:14 am 15. HonestJon:What? I don’t believe it! It’s like all cats swearing off catnip, tuna, or milk; like all dogs swearing off chewing shoes or bones.
It’ll never happen. It’s just a scare tactic. Maybe it’ll work, but I doubt it.
This whole episode is just a manifestation of the unintended liberal financial destruction that comes about when too many rely on a free lunch without consequences. Parasites will eventually kill the host when there are too many of them. I say cut ‘em off! Hungry people will work! Fat and lazy ones who aren’t made to work will just get fatter and lazier.
Here’s something that needs to happen: If a woman is on welfare, she needs to be forced to go to the welfare office to pick up her check each month. When she gets there, she immediately gets drug tested. If she fails, no check! And then the State takes the kids from her and puts them in foster care. Same thing for men! Also, all women on welfare should be forced to be on birth control or maybe even be sterilized permanently. Same thing for men! There’s no sense paying losers to have more kids.
regards
Jun 12, 2009 - 7:20 am 16. uburoisc:The only way that the leftist politicians are going to cut anything except military spending is to force it into bankruptcy. That is equally true of the federal government. But with states, they can’t “monetarize their debt,” so they go first. Bankruptcy is the only place where immovable political objects get moved; so many people are at the trough in California that the only way they are going to get get the face out of the slop is to have the food supply cut off entirely. And they have nothing left to hyperinflate, like housing, to provide the fake revenue stream.
Jun 12, 2009 - 7:21 am 17. Middleman:Honestly, if California didn’t have to pay for basic services to it’s illegal immigrant population, I wonder how much money that would free up?
Jun 12, 2009 - 7:31 am 18. Meryl:As I think about the decades we lived in southern California I’m reminded of the following, which was definitely part of our desire to get out of there:
There is no point in achieving your own little spot of security (home or food stash) unless you are willing to protect it (physically).
There is no point in owning a gun unless you are willing to use it.
There is no point in being willing to use a gun to protect your home unless you are willing to kill the person coming over the wall.
We were still there for the Rodney King riots. We lived 100 miles NORTH of the LA basin.
The rioting, after 3-4 days, was hopscotching its way through the small towns of the high desert, headed our way. It got to where we DID check to see which of our neighbors had guns and ammunition, so we could evaluate our security.
There are ALWAYS “rioters in waiting” in the big cities. So, yes, if California “shuts down” there WILL be rioting. And it WILL spread to the other big cities across the nation.
And then Soetero can declare martial law.
Then he, Michelle and Rahm will break out the cigars, lean back with their pina coladas on the White House balcony….and one of them will smile and say, “Now, that is what I call redistribution of wealth.”
Jun 12, 2009 - 7:32 am 19. FVazquez:I suspect California attracts welfare recipeints because the total package is much more attractive than other states. My sister-in-law and her family moved 5 years ago to NM for better job opportunities and lower cost of living. Everyone is doing well, except for the niece who went back to CA, higher benefits then NM, virtually free comm college classes with no real job training purpose, free childcare, and who knows what else.
Jun 12, 2009 - 8:00 am 20. Steve:I live in New Mexico — should we start building the wall? No, not to keep out illegal Mexicans but for fleeing California welfare recipients!
Jun 12, 2009 - 8:06 am 21. Delia:20. Steve:
“I live in New Mexico — should we start building the wall? No, not to keep out illegal Mexicans but for fleeing California welfare recipients!”
~
ROTFLMAO! That made me laugh out loud in the worst way. *cleans monitor* -Sadly, your quip is probably not that far off the mark.
You gotta love how the MSM turns a blind eye to the glaring tree trunk in their eye that is California which is a prequel to things to come for the entire Country should we keep going down this ridiculous route.
Paging Pelosi. What say you about the dire straits of your land of fruits and nuts, hobag? Hello? Anyone in there, wax faced freak?
Jun 12, 2009 - 9:02 am 22. Jim Treacher:Ah, you missed the obvious headline:
California to Say Farewell to Welfare?
Jun 12, 2009 - 10:23 am 23. Tom Blumer:#22, Jim, if the occasion arises, I won’t miss it again. :–>
Jun 12, 2009 - 10:31 am 24. hoads:I don’t believe it. California propagandists are threatening to have to cut teachers and firemen because the majority rejected their tax proposals. They’re trying to trot out the most visible parts of government to cut in order to provoke the public to soften their stance against taxes. Meanwhile, CA has a bloated government bureaucracy and all kinds of other wasteful, duplicative, outdated government programs that could be cut and they know it.
Jun 12, 2009 - 10:49 am 25. uburoisc:hoads is right, the leftists will threaten to cut the few things CA residents do want funded, and leave off all the crap everyone would love cut off. They do that all the time with bond issues and sales tax increases. But the politicians get their support for doling out cash to worthless programs that they translate into a permanent special constituency that will vote in a block for them.
Jun 12, 2009 - 11:31 am 26. Self-hating Boomer:This is a bluff. I’m not sure what end game they’re fishing for, but this is a total bluff.
Jun 12, 2009 - 12:06 pm 27. Dee:If any of you think that welfare will actually be decreased let alone cut, I’ve a bridge to sell you. Hey, maybe I’ll make a two for the price of one plus shipping and handling of course.
Jun 12, 2009 - 12:40 pm 28. Marc Malone:As goes CA, so goes the nation. We will see a revolt in CA. We will see a revolt in the nation.
Jun 12, 2009 - 1:00 pm 29. Mike2:7. Themistocles:
“Mike2 has a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature. There will be no riots and homes in Beverly Hills will not be burned by welfare recipients, who have other things to worry about.”
Watts 1965 for starters.
“And who is really “poor” in America? It’s not like during the Depression, and the dust bowl migrations. In fact, there are very few truly destitute people in America:”
Give it time.
Jun 12, 2009 - 1:23 pm 30. Mike2:20. Steve:
Good one Steve! That makes two of us New Mexicans here. The problem is that we have boatloads of California refugees here already and they brought their left wing politics and drug habits with them. Look at what has happened to Santa Fe! Used to be a nice place until the “invasion” happened.
Jun 12, 2009 - 1:28 pm 31. junebee:“There is no point in owning a gun unless you are willing to use it. There is no point in being willing to use a gun to protect your home unless you are willing to kill the person coming over the wall.”
Gun control is hitting the target!
Jun 12, 2009 - 1:36 pm 32. mac:Stop pandering to the damned illegals and kick their asses back across the Mex border and you’ll save a TON of cash. Deport all the illegals now in jail to Mex prisons and you’ll save a ton more.
Cal’s budget crisis is easy to fix in real life–if only you start caring about legal Americans instead of potential Democrat Party voters!
Sadly, this won’t happen. Cal will crash and burn. I hope Obama tries to bail them out–that will be the death knell for his 2012 run.
Jun 12, 2009 - 2:06 pm 33. keywestbrat:do you think there will be a mass exodous to the neigboring states? Could snow ball all the way to east coast if the neighboring states cut welfare also when over whelmed by welfare folks
Jun 12, 2009 - 2:24 pm 34. AThinkingPerson:But, but, but isn’t Nancy Pelosi’s home district in California? Isn’t she the one helping ramrod through all of the economic policies that she and Obama masterminded to “save us”?
We are so screwed.
Jun 12, 2009 - 2:49 pm 35. Войска ПВО:Mac,
If they do cut off the dole, most of the illegals will scoot back across the border and the freeloaders will head for greener pastures. Maybe then, the balance of conservatives to the freeloading hacks who put our clown legislators in office will change and California will turn around..
..then again, maybe there is a Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown..
Jun 12, 2009 - 2:56 pm 36. pedro:WHAT TOOK SO LONG FOR THIS IDEA TO COME UP?
Jun 12, 2009 - 3:47 pm 37. Don:“Mike2 has a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature. There will be no riots and homes in Beverly Hills will not be burned by welfare recipients, who have other things to worry about. ACORN will rabble rouse — but 3% of the population isn’t going to force the other 97% to fork over more money.”
I don’t know, but gays are only three percent of the population and they are having a pretty good run redefining marriage. Lawyers only make up .5 percent of the population, but make up 70 percent of the American administrative state. It is a curious representative democracy we have of independent branches of government, supposedly providing checks and balances, while predominantly staffed by bar card carrying lawyers who get to represent every one, including them selves.
Jun 12, 2009 - 3:53 pm 38. Eric:The War on Poverty has long since transformed into a War FOR Poverty.
Jun 12, 2009 - 4:33 pm 39. Jose:It’s a well known fact that if you want less of something you tax it and if you want more of something you subsidize it. We’ve subsidized poverty for decades out of a misplaced sense of compassion.
Why are more children as a percentage of all children living below the poverty level than adults? Because the smorgasbord of government programs make it easy for the poor to have lots of children: Medicaid, SCHIP, free lunch programs, WIC, welfare, public housing, free vaccinations, et al.
The middle class, squeezed by an always increasing tax burden to support the ever growing under-class, cut back on the number of the children they decide to have due to limited resources.
I’d love to have another child but can’t afford it. Maybe if I were poor…
The solution to endemic poverty is to make being poor difficult and stop subsidizing the generational poverty. It may be tough medicine but if the poor knew they couldn’t get public support for their children, many would stop having them.
As a lifelong Californian I want to point out something to the vast group of California haters.
First off, we Californians are not a homogenous group of liberals. There are 52 counties in California. Over 30 of them routinely vote Republican.
Most of the “California Liberals” are transplants from other states, (Pelosi, Feinstien, most Judges on the 9th Circuit Court, our Governor, and so on.) Native Californians are self reliant adventuresome hard working people, descended from those brave Americans that had the gual to leave the genteel urban centers and farm communities back east, to cross wide open plains, terrible mountain ranges, and unforgiving deserts.
We created a beautiful and productive, with outstanding farms, orchards, and ranches in our State. Then we were beset upon by the “enlightened hoardes” of easterners too numerous to mention.
These pests show up here and flock to urban centers and take them over like a virus, creating more viruses. But they are predominately confined to the seaboard. Leaving those forsaken coastal cities is like leaving socialist Europe for an inland California full of hard working agrarian Americans, such as Victor Davis Hanson.
If you had a state the size of California on the eastern seaboard, it would stretch nearly from Jacksonville, FL to Boston, MA. Are you going to try and tell me that all those people living within that area are of the same mindset?
There are over 30 other counties, some much larger than eastern states, full of real Americans.
In this global war on terror, as was the case in Vietnam, no state has sacrificied more of its young lives in our nations wars than California.. NONE.
Predominately, those young lives are guys just like me, (a Veteran of both Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom) we come from the small farm towns and hard urban neighborhoods, and we kick ass.
Please don’t stereotype us. All Californians are not the same. I have no intention of leaving. I hope the State does collapse, because maybe then this liberal pox will return from whence it came.
Jun 12, 2009 - 4:39 pm 40. Praetorian:I agree with self-hating Boomer that this is a bluff. Yes, it remains to be seen what the end game will b but rest assured they aren’t going to literally cut public assistance out. I’m sorta an old school liberal. I prefer sending them a check (just enough but not too much) so they stay in their own neighborhood.
Jun 12, 2009 - 4:43 pm 41. Praetorian:I also agree with mac about the illegal problem. They are in no way responsible for the whole mess but they have contributed to it significantly. The problem is once they are gone who will pick the tomatoes that go on our Big Macs (actually I’m vegan, so yours not mine)? The illegal problem is more complicated than meets the eye. The economy in California relies on immigrant labor in so many ways were they all to leave that may be a worse mess than the budget situation, so I’m not sure there is an easy answer to this as much as we would all like one. Nevertheless, both parties need to talk about the elephant in the room (illegals) in an honest way.
Jun 12, 2009 - 4:50 pm 42. SukieTawdry:I hate to keep beating the same drum, but beat it I will…
CalWORKS is a drop in the bucket compared to California’s obligations to its public employees, current and retired. There are billions and billions and billions in unfunded public pension obligations. Right now, one of every three dollars in the LA County education budget goes to retirees and that will only increase in the future. It’s not at all unusual for municipal employees to retire at nearly 100% of their final salaries (pension and health care obligations are why several municipalities already have become insolvent). All public employees are represented by unions which in turn are the most powerful lobbies in the state. They contribute vast amounts of money to the same elected officials who sit opposite them at the negotiating table. The care and feeding of our public employees and their unions is unsustainable and ultimately will be what puts us under. And there’s no way the feds or anyone else can bail us out. Nor should they.
Jun 12, 2009 - 5:58 pm 43. Jose:Sukie Tawdry,
Yes! It is these outrageous salary and benefit packages that have driven our State into the ground. I suspect that these pacakages will eventually go unpaid, because there will be no money to pay them.
Everything must go belly up before something can be done. And when it does go belly up, we must be wary of those looking to “re-write” the State constitution. I hope the State will split into three, and break the stranglehold the lefties have on California’s 53 electoral votes.
Jun 12, 2009 - 6:37 pm 44. Delia:Jose & Sukie,
AMEN.
Jun 12, 2009 - 8:21 pm 45. Sonny:What California is experiencing is the unintended consequences of one federal judge overturning Prop. 187 back in the early 1990’s.
The Proposition originally passed overwhelming, but the federal judge who overturned it should be one to be blamed. She caused billions of dollars of expenditures and now the state is on the edge of bankruptcy.
Jun 12, 2009 - 11:39 pm 46. noreen:In our local paper here, I read an article about the California welfare situation. The photo tagged onto the article was of an able bodied 22 year old girl bemoaning the fact that she was going to lose her benefits. Does anybody wonder why she was on welfare in the first place. This crazed need for the left to help the poor just makes more poor.
Jun 13, 2009 - 7:02 am 47. njcommuter:Good point. Right now in NYC one of the municipial unions has radio ads running, in the voice of an elderly black woman, complaining about how Mike Bloomberg is laying off “city workers” who are the “fabric of our community” and replacing them with private contractors who are supposedly more costly.
Private contractors do not leave the city with open pension obligations. Any pensions that they provide are funded out of current monies and invested, rather than left as debt for future generations.
Promising pensions without putting the money aside is a good way to go bankrupt. Whether government or private sector, the money to fund the pension should be completely paid out by the time the employee’s service ends or, in the case of a new plan, no later than eighteen months after the end of the service.
Jun 13, 2009 - 7:10 am 48. SoCalDem:California already cut 10% of welfare payments, they cut Social Security Disability. The Federal government pays a part, but the part paid by the state has decreased to $179. The real problem in California is the fact that you have to be able to speak Spanish/English in order to get a job. Alot of jobs require you to be bilingual. Gee that sounds like discrimination doesn’t it. Americans are second class citizens in California.
Jun 13, 2009 - 9:27 am 49. mobius2702:All,
The bigger point here is that this will push MORE people onto the TANF Federal Assistance Program.
Correct me if I’m wrong (preferably nicely, but if you wanna be mean, g’head..) but isn’t CalWorks the state program? Is TANF separate from the state program in that TANF is federal?
The danger here (if I’m correct in my interpretation of Calworks vs TANF) is that as Californai eliminates Calworks, those who were using/abusing that system will instead flood TANF and use/abuse that system.
And then within 6 months, we’ll hear a public outcry over the TANF program, and start dumping more federal money into that.
Just something to keep an eye out for.
Jun 13, 2009 - 10:06 am 50. whyyeseyec:California is not going to ditch welfare. In fact, I bet this is nothing more than a cynical attempt by the state to get pressure groups riled up to protest for another tax increase to save the `poor`.
California has so many Boards, Coalitions and Commissions it`s mind boggling. There are multi-millions that could be cut right there….
Jun 13, 2009 - 12:08 pm 51. Tom Blumer:#49, CalWORKs is TANF in California, but you are right in that CA pays higher benefits than the Feds require, and does so out of its Treasury.
CA taxpayers are paying the supplements. US taxpayers are paying TANF. All are getting ripped off because hundreds of thousands are getting assistance who shouldn’t be getting it, based on other states’ experience.
Jun 14, 2009 - 8:06 am 52. Habu:Was stationed in Santa Anna in the late fifties.
Jun 14, 2009 - 4:46 pm 53. Coldwarrior57:Was a great place and great people there. Had a excellent education system and population of smart and hard working people that contributed to what Cal. was. Returned to Oceanside in the late seventies and could see changes that weren’t for the better. Have been back to Cal. a couple of times in 04 and 07 and it it tragic what has been allowed to happen to that great
state through the policies of the politicians
and the liberals.
Good. The state needs to close down schools that are not producing, they need to turn OFF all services to any one that is not in the country legally.
Jun 14, 2009 - 6:18 pm 54. Michael C. Keehn:We the people need to march on Sac, over run the capitol, toss out all the bumbs there, then turn to SF and tell the 9th circus to STAY OUT OF STATES right issues.
I speak from the viewpoint of an endangered (yet unprotected) rare occurrence of a native California conservative. With the State financial situation in arrears, and an already monumental tax burden, many of the affluent, whom shoulder the cost of the California government, are leaving the State as apparently gold can tarnish. My own family has made a progressive exodus. Recent events make me seriously question my decision to return to my home state following my military service. Should riots erupt, and the affluent are “punished” for our economic success following an elimination of welfare benefits, the camels back will break, and those with invested assets in the State will see that continued presence in the State is nothing more than a bottomless money pit. We will drive out the productive in droves, whom will cut losses and run, rather than wait for favorable positioning to move as they are now; The California economy will utterly collapse in the absence of enterprise and the highly productive. The alternative to raise taxes, is less severe, but still has the effect of hastening the exodus. That road eventually arrives at the same place albeit a few years further down the line. As much as it is near and dear to me because I live here, all should watch with interest; For how California goes, so goes the Nation. What we have done to ourselves is simply a few years ahead of the current National plan. Hopefully the rest of this great nation can learn from our mistakes, about the real dangers to society posed by large governments and wealth redistribution.
Jun 15, 2009 - 9:56 am 55. Colony14:In California SSI pays an EXTRA Cash Check called SSP. It comes from the State of California, Tax Payers and goes to the General Fund where they drain it and give it to SSI Recipients along with their check each month.
Jul 16, 2009 - 11:01 pm 56. paul:In California ONLY, an SSI Individual get’s $907 and an SSI Couple get’s $1,569 per month.
You NEVER have to have worked a single day in your life to collect SSI/SSP.
California pays the HIGHEST to SSI/SSP recipients.
EVERYONE get’s qualified when their Case to get onto SSI/SSP goes to the ‘Administrative Law Judge’. And while they are qualifying for SSI/SSP, they get FREE LEGAL AID to do everything like their Appeals for them, FREE of Charge.
They ALWAYS get qualified by the Administrative Law Judge, that is only worried about, APPROVING their Claims and moving onto the next case.
When they get their Permenant SSI/SSP, they get a ‘WINDFALL Check’ from the Date they first Applied to the Date the Administrative Law Judge APPROVES them for LIFETIME Tax Free Checks.
It’s usually enough to buy a really nice car with CASH.
SSI/SSP’s can own a house of any size or any value whatsoever, even if it’s inherited paid for free and clear.
SSI/SSP pays ZERO taxes.
SSI/SSP is NOT SSDI, SSDI’s Worked and paid into the system and become disabled while they are still employed.
SSI/SSP’s don’t ever have to work, as a matter of FACT, most get onto SSI/SSP, straight off of CalWORKS because they don’t want to have to work, and they will be required to work just a tiny little bit to get their TANF checks, so they go to Social Security Offices instead to get approved and never have to work a day in their life.
The LARGEST Catagory of SSI/SSP recipients is the Catagory of MENTAL ‘Other’. This means, that recipients can say they are “Depressed” or have “Anxiety” from being a cronic Alcoholic, or a cronic Meth Addict, and they will Qualify and get paid for the rest of their lives to get high off TAX FREE Cash Checks!
California should CUT the SSP portion of the checks and turn them into EBT-Food Stamp Debit Cards and that way they could eat themselves into an early grave and make the world a better place without them being worthless and useless.
this is for blackwater If u ever get hurt or become disabled u will need the safety net and when its gone and your on the streets and have nothing u will say wow I was wrong, this very day folks whom were making six figures have lost everything and for the first time in there lifes are haveing to take what they can get thus getting food stamp and a very little bit of money just enough to keep roof over there heads, and you would have them put on the streets so crim would go up and hospitals bills would go up no insurence and all of us pay for that in the end, crime we pay for it thru our prison system. you want to cut money then stop prohibition on american folks leagle lise bud, make 1.3 then over crowded jails wich cost us 3.4 billion a year so far saves 4.7 billion dollors then add up police and lawers and judges theres another billion or so then add up all the farmers working and putting tax money back in the system not to mention green energy close and about 25000 othere uses for it, this would turn econimy around, ALSO I HURD CALIF. COULD USE ITS PROPERTIES AS COLATOROL FOR A STATE RUN BANKD ISSUING BANK CHECKS BACKED BY COLATOROL, THUS CALIF. BANKS COULD TAKE UP THE SLACK AND LOANS OTHER BANKS ARE NOT GIVEING. THUS MAKEING HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLORS FOR CALIF. AND FIXING BUDGET WIN WIN FOR ALL DEM. AND REP. DONT HAVE TO BUDGE SAVES HEALTHCARE AND SAFETY NETS NO MORE TAX INCREASES MAYBE LESS TAXS, THUS CALIF. WOULD TURN THIS ECONIMY AROUND ON ITS OWN SO GOES CALIF. SO GOES THE COUNTRY SMART GOVERNMENT IS BESSED FOR US. WE CANT EXPECT A ACTOR TO FIX THE MESS LETS PUT SOMEONE IN THERE LIKE CALIF. SANFRNCISCO MAIR FOR GOVERNOR IN 2010 HES THE ONE WHOS GOING TO FIX THE MESS.
Jul 20, 2009 - 9:51 am 57. paul:colony14 my wife has just started getting masive migrain headachs to the point she start puking, Just found out her brain was under devoloped at birth thus understanding why she gets headacks and is forgetting things cant focus on anything at all, she worked all her life but as of now has no way of keeping a job when shes puking her guts our cause of the stress and forgetting things after seeing 6 drs they have told her that she will never be able to work again. you might be thinking your cutting money from folks whom scam the system but what about folks whom were born with problems they couldnt help. and need our help, do we say forget u and throw um to the wolfes just a thought for your one sided comments
Jul 20, 2009 - 9:57 am