Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
The Republican Blame the Poor campaign never ends.
Well, Chris....you've provided what our President calls a 'teachable moment.'
First, in case you missed this:
". ...doesnt mean to criticize households with earnings of $22,314, the 2010 poverty level for a family of four, but finds that the nation believes too much is being spent on welfare."
Now, let's see the reality:
1. Means-tested welfare spending or aid to the poor (non-welfare programs provide benefits and services for the general population) in 2008, total government spending on means-tested welfare or aid to the poor amounted to $714 billion. This high level of welfare spending was the result of steady permanent growth in welfare spending over several decades rather than a short-term response to temporary economic conditions $522 billion (73 percent) was federal expenditures, and $192 billion (27 percent) was state government funds.
Obama to Spend $10.3 Trillion on Welfare: Uncovering the Full Cost of Means-Tested Welfare or Aid to the Poor
a. By 2008, total welfare spending amounted to $16,800 per person in poverty, four times as much as the Census Bureau estimated was needed to eliminate all poverty in America- that would be $50,400 for a family of three!! Ibid.
b. Over the ten-year period from 2009 to 2018, federal and state welfare spending will total $10.3 trillion. Ibid.
c. This does not include ObamaCare.
2. And when reading the propaganda about poverty incomes, realize that they leave out the income transfers from various government programs: benefits are substantial and the recipients pay nothing. Those in the bottom 20% of income recipients receive over 70% of their income in such transfers. Now, why doesnt the Old Left Media tell this?
a. In 2001 cash and in-kind transfers accounted for 77.8% of said recipients income. How fair is it for the Left to tell you that their income is actually 22.2% of what it actually is? Reynolds, Income and Wealth, p. 28
b. This tends to explain how Americans living below the poverty level spend $1.75 for every $1 of income. The Myth of Widespread American Poverty
3. So...to summarize the above, the $22,314, when combined with the means-tested in-kind and transfers from government ($67,200) means that our 'poor' family of four has an equivalent income of $89,514.
a. In 2006, the "real" (adjusted for inflation) median annual household income rose 1.3% to $50,233.00 according to the Census Bureau.
Household income in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
4. Still slobbering, Chris?
Or, waking up and realizing how you've been used?
1. "As President Obama crafts a reelection income equality message aimed at punishing the rich and rewarding the poor, his own government finds that the 46 million living below the so-called poverty line live and spend pretty much like everyone else.
2. A collection of federal household consumption surveys collected by pollster Scott Rasmussen finds that 74 percent of the poor own a car or truck, 70 percent have a VCR, 64 percent have a DVD, 63 percent have cable or satellite, 53 percent have a video game system, 50 percent have a computer, 30 percent have two or more cars and 23 percent use TiVo.
3. What the government defines as poverty is vastly different from what most Americans envision, he writes in his newly released book, The Peoples Money.
4. ...details from two recent Department of Agriculture surveys: On an average day, just 1 percent of households have someone who is forced to miss a meal....96 percent of poor parents say their children were never hungry during the year because they couldnt afford food.
5. About 40 million Americans are officially defined as living below the poverty line. Yet most of those have adequate levels of food, shelter, clothing and medical care.
6. Sixty-three percent of American adults believe such a family is not living in poverty, he writes. Only 16 percent believe that a family is living in poverty if it has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV, a DVD player, and a VCR, but thats what the average family living in poverty has as defined by the U.S. government,...
7. ...doesnt mean to criticize households with earnings of $22,314, the 2010 poverty level for a family of four, but finds that the nation believes too much is being spent on welfare.
8. ... 71 percent believe too many are receiving federal welfare benefits and would like to see official measures of poverty tightened...
9. The president, however, is going the other way and even reviving plans to help homeowners refinance their mortgages, an idea similar to a stimulus-era idea that in part led to the Tea Party movement.
10. ...the administrations spending on means-tested programs like food stamps, public housing assistance, weatherization spending and others is slated to continue growing dramatically even after the recession comes to an end.
Feds:
Let the hand-wringing begin!
and it doesn't end there, according to the census ( 2009); 96% of the parents said their children were never hungry. Eighty-three percent of poor families reported having enough food to eat, and 82% of poor adults said they were never hungry at any time in 2009 due to a lack of food or money.
Warren Kozak: The Myth of the Starving Americans - WSJ.com
remembering too, that hunger is relative, it even goes further, consider; in Wisconsin over 370,000 children receive free lunches at school, however, less than 40k are condidered poverty line poor.......so who eats the other 300k some odd lunches?
Middle class kids, thats who. AND, when applying for federal aid for such prgms what number do you think they use? Ipso facto they provide free lunches to 370k, so thats what the ask for to be funded and, that too becomes a statistic added to the numbers justifying spending over 100 BILLION dollars on these prgms......
Oh and do you know that the lobby grp. for fast foods chains is trying to get congress to buy off on allowing them to accept EBT? We'l see were that goes.
All of these things you guys are saying about poverty in America are true, but miss the point. Getting into a dispute with PC over how badly off the poor in this country are is playing into her shell game.
The main problem with poverty in this country is that its ranks are growing while the ranks of the middle class are shrinking. Poor people are arguably materially better off today than they were in, say, the 1970s. But there are far more of them than there should be, because of the decline of the middle class.
That's what it's about. The OP is correct that you are being hoodwinked -- by the OP herself. Please don't fall for it.
The super wealthy get the most welfare.
Trillions of dollars worth.
how?
this ought to be good.....
The Reagan Bush tax cuts for the rich. Reagan's own budget director, David Stockman, said that the Reagan tax cuts were a "Trojan Horse" to cut taxes for the wealthy.
Here are the numbers...
ReaganBushDebt.org
The Republican Blame the Poor campaign never ends.
how?
this ought to be good.....
The Reagan Bush tax cuts for the rich. Reagan's own budget director, David Stockman, said that the Reagan tax cuts were a "Trojan Horse" to cut taxes for the wealthy.
Here are the numbers...
ReaganBushDebt.org
I watched Stockton on the Chris Hayes show last week, and he does say the kind of thing that the Left should report.
He also said that Reagan believed in treating cap gains as ordinary income....
There's some stuff for you guys to use there.
The class war is over. The rich won...
Good post. I think some on the left should be taken to countries like Africa so they can grasp the concept of what poor really means. Poor people in America have it ten times better than poor people from around the world. I have been to alot of other countries and have seen what poor is. When you can walk into a grocery store and see someone that in this country is labeled "Poor", and that person is buying t-bone steaks and shit, that is not poor.
All of these things you guys are saying about poverty in America are true, but miss the point. Getting into a dispute with PC over how badly off the poor in this country are is playing into her shell game.
The main problem with poverty in this country is that its ranks are growing while the ranks of the middle class are shrinking. Poor people are arguably materially better off today than they were in, say, the 1970s. But there are far more of them than there should be, because of the decline of the middle class.
That's what it's about. The OP is correct that you are being hoodwinked -- by the OP herself. Please don't fall for it.
badly off the poor in this country
Good post. I think some on the left should be taken to countries like Africa so they can grasp the concept of what poor really means. Poor people in America have it ten times better than poor people from around the world. I have been to alot of other countries and have seen what poor is. When you can walk into a grocery store and see someone that in this country is labeled "Poor", and that person is buying t-bone steaks and shit, that is not poor.
So everything is okay as long as it's not as bad as Africa? That's the direction Republicans wanna take us?
Good post. I think some on the left should be taken to countries like Africa so they can grasp the concept of what poor really means. Poor people in America have it ten times better than poor people from around the world. I have been to alot of other countries and have seen what poor is. When you can walk into a grocery store and see someone that in this country is labeled "Poor", and that person is buying t-bone steaks and shit, that is not poor.
So everything is okay as long as it's not as bad as Africa? That's the direction Republicans wanna take us?
Yeah I knew it was a matter of time before someone dusted off that old chestnut. Americans arent poor because other people in other countries are poorer is one I hope the GOP runs with. \
Good post. I think some on the left should be taken to countries like Africa so they can grasp the concept of what poor really means. Poor people in America have it ten times better than poor people from around the world. I have been to alot of other countries and have seen what poor is. When you can walk into a grocery store and see someone that in this country is labeled "Poor", and that person is buying t-bone steaks and shit, that is not poor.
So everything is okay as long as it's not as bad as Africa? That's the direction Republicans wanna take us?
Wow...now the right wingers think our poor aren't poor enough. They really do want to be first in the race to the bottom...
Wow...now the right wingers think our poor aren't poor enough. They really do want to be first in the race to the bottom...
Post #35 is for you, too.
PSYCHE!!!!!!