It’s time--yes, it’s time for you and me to address welfare reform. We continue having a discussion on reform, and yet nothing is truly been implemented to change the system. We must begin today to create and implement tangible solutions of a growing concern. Of course we have debated that fact that public assistance was not meant to be a permanent form of income; however, it becomes a way of life for certain people of all nationalities in society.
I advocate for public assistance to aid the less fortunate in society, but more specifically, only people who are unable to work due to illness or mentally challenged. Understanding that jobs are limited at this time in America and incomes among the masses are horrendous, if there are people receiving welfare, they must do community service work in order to continue to receive assistance.
This could include:
1. Classroom aides in public schools.
2. Aides in hospitals, nursing homes, hospices.
3. Aides in after school programs for children.
4. Supports at playgrounds and recreation centers doing activities with children.
5. Clean-up crews in neighborhoods where there is decay.
6. Support for senior citizens who need shopping or assistance in getting to a doctor.
To ensure that public assistance is effectively implemented I also advocate that we include:
1. Home visits required for all forms of assistance.
2. Increase the salaries of social workers and advocates.
3. Proof of community service employment or proof of attendance at a place of education (GED program, college, vocational school).
4. If a person needs assistance because he or she does not receive child support, we must effectively create and implement a system to better help collect that child support.
Conversely, this will be a win-win situation. Let’s be honest, Philadelphia and other cities in the Republic have eliminated so many of these support programs from state budgets. If people are required to work to earn public assistance, they gain a work ethic. No one would get a free ride, pure and simple. Just imagine how many positive benefits would come out of this form of welfare reform.
This is the one hope of doing away with “generational welfare” and the abuse of welfare funds for people who choose not to work, individuals suffering from drugs/alcohol addiction, as well as those who practice irresponsible parenting. The change has to begin somewhere. This is where it should begin.
“Progressives will bring balance to the Republic.”
Anthony P. Johnson
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
“How the Citizenry Perverted Welfare Benefits.”
In this country, why are there some people receiving welfare benefits who think they are entitled to keep having children knowing that they cannot afford to support these children financially and socially attend to the children's needs?
Public assistance was created to aid senior citizens and other Americans that were going through a difficult financial period. Welfare was not implemented to become a cultural way of life--but unfortunately, that is exactly what it has become.
What we've been witnessing over the last three decades is how welfare has created a generation of families who have become dependent on it. Are we to believe that over the last 30 years there haven’t been any effective academic and economic resources available for those receiving assistance to become self-sufficient to provide for their families? This addiction-like mentality to welfare has made some of the citizenry 21st century slaves. To be blunt, this is a national disgrace!
Several weeks ago, my students and I viewed the movie "Precious," and at least half the student population knows an individual like the mother of Precious. Male citizens of Caucasian American, African American, and Latino American also increase the rolls on public assistance--young and able bodied men. Yet, we've seen many of these males have two or more children while receiving benefits. So, if people cannot support their families, should they continue producing children for tax payers to support? There are intelligent and tangible solutions to addressing the welfare issue such as educational and entrepreneur resources made available to everyone. But sadly some refuse to seek those opportunities.
Immediate action needs to be taken by lawmakers stopping this insanity of welfare. If people choose to have children while they receive benefits, then the responsibility of the support of these children must revert back to the parents, not the tax payers. Don't reward "welfare pregnancies" by increasing the subsidies for additional children. Instead of giving cash assistance to the parents of children who often abuse it, let the government give housing vouchers instead of cash. Let food stamps for welfare recipients be limited to healthy food similar to the way WIC does it instead of loading children up on sugar and soda pop creating hyperactivity in children so that they can't focus on their school work.
Children who are born into generational welfare also suffer from the symptoms of poverty which include physical illnesses such as asthma, learning disabilities, and emotional problems. Children born from drug users suffer neurological problems creating a myriad of health and behavioral problems taxing the cost of medical care and behavioral specialists. If people are not able to take care of themselves, how can they possibly take on the responsibility and extra burden of caring for more children? Quite frankly, they can't. They need to be discouraged--not encouraged.
Let me be perfectly clear--Public assistance was created to aid senior citizens and other Americans that were going through temporary financial hardship of no fault of their own and they should continue to be aided. However, for those that think they are entitled to these benefits are misguided and are perverting a system created to help Americans in need.
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."---Cicero, 55 BC
“Progressives will bring balance to the Republic.”
Anthony P. Johnson
Public assistance was created to aid senior citizens and other Americans that were going through a difficult financial period. Welfare was not implemented to become a cultural way of life--but unfortunately, that is exactly what it has become.
What we've been witnessing over the last three decades is how welfare has created a generation of families who have become dependent on it. Are we to believe that over the last 30 years there haven’t been any effective academic and economic resources available for those receiving assistance to become self-sufficient to provide for their families? This addiction-like mentality to welfare has made some of the citizenry 21st century slaves. To be blunt, this is a national disgrace!
Several weeks ago, my students and I viewed the movie "Precious," and at least half the student population knows an individual like the mother of Precious. Male citizens of Caucasian American, African American, and Latino American also increase the rolls on public assistance--young and able bodied men. Yet, we've seen many of these males have two or more children while receiving benefits. So, if people cannot support their families, should they continue producing children for tax payers to support? There are intelligent and tangible solutions to addressing the welfare issue such as educational and entrepreneur resources made available to everyone. But sadly some refuse to seek those opportunities.
Immediate action needs to be taken by lawmakers stopping this insanity of welfare. If people choose to have children while they receive benefits, then the responsibility of the support of these children must revert back to the parents, not the tax payers. Don't reward "welfare pregnancies" by increasing the subsidies for additional children. Instead of giving cash assistance to the parents of children who often abuse it, let the government give housing vouchers instead of cash. Let food stamps for welfare recipients be limited to healthy food similar to the way WIC does it instead of loading children up on sugar and soda pop creating hyperactivity in children so that they can't focus on their school work.
Children who are born into generational welfare also suffer from the symptoms of poverty which include physical illnesses such as asthma, learning disabilities, and emotional problems. Children born from drug users suffer neurological problems creating a myriad of health and behavioral problems taxing the cost of medical care and behavioral specialists. If people are not able to take care of themselves, how can they possibly take on the responsibility and extra burden of caring for more children? Quite frankly, they can't. They need to be discouraged--not encouraged.
Let me be perfectly clear--Public assistance was created to aid senior citizens and other Americans that were going through temporary financial hardship of no fault of their own and they should continue to be aided. However, for those that think they are entitled to these benefits are misguided and are perverting a system created to help Americans in need.
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."---Cicero, 55 BC
“Progressives will bring balance to the Republic.”
Anthony P. Johnson
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