Cutoff for welfare aid debated

[Judi Lynn]

Friday, December 30, 2005
Cutoff for welfare aid debated

Reform may be on tap for '06; Granholm vetoed this week GOP plan that included 48-month limit.

By Gary Heinlein and Mark Hornbeck / The Detroit News /

LANSING — Legislative leaders predicted Thursday they will pass new welfare reforms next year, including the controversial four-year public assistance limit proposed in bills Gov. Jennifer Granholm vetoed this week.

Their comments followed House passage of a measure extending current welfare rules for another year. Those rules were set to expire Saturday. The House vote sent the extension to Granholm, who immediately signed it into law. The Senate passed it two weeks ago.

Earlier this week, Granholm's veto struck down a package of new regulations with which the Republican-dominated Legislature had hoped to replace current rules.

Granholm said the 48-month cutoff in that package would have affected 157,000 children. The Michigan Catholic Conference was among the organizations opposing it.
(snip/...)

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051230/POLITICS/51230017/1022

[radwriter0555]

1. The republicans want those 157,000 kids to go out and get jobs.

Clearly.

[RC]

2. More than likely, join the military. bu$h is going

to need a lot more canon fodder when he invades Iran and South America.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. Well, they were able to find employment in Dickensian London

or perhaps we could reopen the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York. These kids have been living high off the hog for too long.:sarcasm:

Kudos to Granholm for focusing on the kids. Every anti-welfare blowhard that I've ever encountered has this image of fat adults eating pizza when they talk about ending welfare.

[Bluerthanblue]

5. not sure if this is in all states-

but the children should be able to recieve benefits up through age 18 and those would NOT be considered in the 48month limit-
I was on public assistance, and my children did NOT have it 'held against them' because i was a screw up, and their father was invisible when responsibility was at issue.

But states set their own schedules- at least they did a few years ago- NH was a 5yr max- mass was lower- some folks came up here to get lesser, but longer benefits.

It's hard enough to live on welfare- its hard enough to deal with the stigma, on top of the fact that you are reduced to a situation that puts you at the mercy of the government... i wish everyone had to experience this at some point in their lives- it would open a lot of eyes.

No one wants to be in need- and no one lives well off the 'system'- Except those who are on the top of the heap- and even then there is the constant battle to stay "top dog".

life can really suck.

[Straight Shooter]

4. Punish the innocents! Punish the innocents!

I have known people on welfare, and although some of the parents made me raise my eyebrows as to whether perhaps they were working the system, those kids wouldn't stand a chance without it.

I can still see the faces of those kids, their secondhand clothes, that look in their eyes that reveals a hunger that goes beyond physical need, that their soul is hungry, too, for something better than what life has given them so far. And now that should be cut back, too?

I'm not even going to get into a rant. It's just too much for me this morning. Happy New Year indeed. :(

[Bluerthanblue]

6. i could be

wrong- but those folks who made you 'raise your eyebrows' might have been putting on a false bravado- and doing it convincingly.

Having been on public assistance, and having clothed myself and family almost exclusively on second hand clothes (which we still do, and always did even before the darkest times) i had all my .... sterotyped illusions shattered by first hand experience.

It is a very humbling, demeaning, shaming, and desperate place to be- asking for help, admitting that you are at the very end of your ability to fend for your children or self, and that you have no other options that are legal, or realistic in order to function in society....

Those kids, feel this shame, no matter how 'brave' a front the parent may put on- And yes, while i'm not naieve enough to think that there aren't those who abuse the system- they are the VAST minority- but the ones who give those who desire to hate the poor, a good "poster parent" for their cause.

In this country of plenty- of more than plenty of excesses beyond belief, there should be NO ONE reduced to the kind of poverty, need, neglect, and abandonment i've witnessed. Look at how people deny Katrina's graphic exposure of how well we take care of our own.-

Sorry-

I believe you and i are in agreement- my rant is mis-directed in response to you- but should be aimed at the notion that poverty is a choice- and is something people exploit- to their own gain.

peace,
blu

[Straight Shooter]

7. Yes, as I said, "some of the parents."

I remember great and lengthy arguments with my father over welfare. He felt it should be for those deserving of it because of great physical catastrophe. I felt, and still do, that we are not to be judgmental of those in need. It is not that he is an unkind man in regard to people, he simply didn't "get it."

Some people I have known actually admitted with great delight that they were working the system. This is true of any form of assistance. There will always be those who take advantage simply because that's their nature, whether they be in poverty or blessed with great financial wealth. We cannot throw out the baby with the bathwater simply because of a few who would take advantage no matter what their position in society.

Personally, I believe that no one works the system as much as those in positions of power, such as the benefits of kickbacks, bribes, et cetera.

I am sorry you have to endure the burden of meager funds, in the midst of a country overflowing with riches. The hardest thing in the world is to look a child in the eyes and feel that you are failing them, even though you know you are doing everything within your power to take care of them. The failure is not yours. The shame is not on you. It is on those who turn their backs on those in need.

:hug: