Could California become the first state in the nation to do away with welfare?
That doomsday scenario is on the table as lawmakers wrestle with a staggering $24.3 billion budget deficit.
County welfare directors are “in shock” at the very idea of getting rid of CalWORKs, which has been widely viewed as one of the most successful social programs in the state’s history, said Bruce Wagstaff, director of the Department of Human Assistance in Sacramento.
“It’s difficult to come up with the right adjective to react to this,” Wagstaff said. “It would be devastating to the people we serve.”
H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance, said California is in an unprecedented fiscal situation that has made all programs, from education to human services, vulnerable to deep and painful reductions.
“I don’t wish for a moment to minimize the profound impact” that eliminating CalWORKs would have, Palmer said. “But the easy decisions are way past being in the rearview mirror for us. We face the specter of California not having cash on hand to pay its bills in July.”
Wagstaff and other administrators are betting that the state will rescue the “welfare to work” program. But they are bracing for cuts that would slash benefits to the lowest levels since the late 1990s, when CalWORKs began as part of the federal government’s bold reform of the welfare system.
Great! Now the surrounding states will need to put up a border fence.
Get rid of welfare so Obama can pay for his Wednesday night parties. Leadership we can believe in (TM).
I know that welfare can be a blessing and sometimes a curse by those who have fallen on hard times but I find little sympathy for illegals in this country drawing benefits.
I stood in line last night in a local Wally World behind three Latino women and I’d bet my last dollar that the one carrying the anchor baby was here illegally. Why the fuck should I pay taxes to support her ass just because she popped a kid out after getting across the border.
BTW This Wally World is in Ohio and is full of Mexicans most of the time. I like Mexicans. I like their country and have worked there myself but that doesn’t mean I want them here illegally sucking up my taxes.
Welfare has been exploited by extremists like these:
http://home.comcast.net/~plutarch/Extremists.html
#31, “The reality of welfare is that investing in your citizens and hoping they make something of their lives is not only morally right, but also fiscally sound policy.”
Taking from one person, through a coercive action, to give something to another is “morally right”?
# 44 Sea Lawyer said, “Taking from one person, through a coercive action, to give something to another is “morally right”?”
Theft is acceptable to the morally BK.
@44
Yes. We all created the system we live in, and we’re responsible for it. Just cutting off the chaff from the whey when it comes to people isn’t different from any other form of oppression.
Your statement is under the flawed assumption that a man is a island, and that his success in life is his own doing.
Border fence. Huh. The productive class has been fleeing CA already for the last decade or more. That’s part of their problem.
#46, flawed because you says so? Just because I don’t give you a dollar directly (or don’t have a central authority coercing me to) doesn’t mean you aren’t experiencing some benefit from my activities in the society. Just as I likely experience some indirect benefit from what you do.
This Blog is bullshit…where’s the real news?
Editor
This is the 2nd topic I’ve seen # 49 “Great American” troll using the same post…
let me start by saying every on e needs a hand every now and then . im a union iron worker of 13 years in californa,the mother of my to kids who are 4and 7 was hooked on meth and going down hill fast for the saft of my childern i took them to out of the sacermento area and moved up north to siskiyou county were my home is, but in doing this i had to quite my job my unemployment ran out , and by the way for some rest i didnt get a exstinchin , so i had to get ad .thank god for welfare . anyway spring came and i was ready to go to work in the redding one small problem daycare in siskiyou county is hard to find when you got to be on the job at 6 in the morning and all the daycares here dont open tell 700, and finding some one that you can trust with your childern now days is even harder .springs gone summers here , and my 17 year old step son s here to watch my kids , im ready to go now ,next week at the latest but the central bearing in my truck went out to day.and well be fixs tomorrow. if i dont get my ad for july im fucked no way to pay to get my truck fixs .like i said at the start every one needs a hand some times,and all you fucks bad mouth ever one on welfare fuck you . stop letting mexicans in this country this state is over ran with them and alls i seen them do is take jobs from californas sell drug ,and believe this if you got kids there at risk at get hook on drugs that are producted from mexicans stop illgals from mexico.AND IT STOPS CALIFORNAS PROBLEM
give those lazy fucks jobs not cash