Excerpt
SUMMARY: Since 1996, in order to get welfare in the U.S., you have to work. The Clinton Welfare-to-Work program successfully got millions of families off the social safety net program. But today's recipients face stagnant low wages and limited resources for job training, making it nearly impossible for many to gain economic mobility. Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): There’s a growing push at the state level to crack down on welfare spending. In some cases, it’s about how much is spent and for how long. In other cases, it’s about making sure the money is spent well.
Kansas became the latest state today, when Governor Sam Brownback signed a law establishing stricter limits on eligibility and the use of benefits. Nearly two dozen states have made some kind of change to their rules.
Our economics correspondent, Paul Solman, has been looking into welfare reform and how it’s been working before these latest moves. It’s part of our ongoing reporting Making Sense, which airs every Thursday on the NewsHour.
ASHLEY MURPHY: The wait is crazy there, like almost three to four hours.
PAUL SOLMAN (NewsHour): Three to four hours?
ASHLEY MURPHY: Minimum to just go, like, into the office.
PAUL SOLMAN: In Boston, 24-year-old Ashley Murphy, single mother of a boy, 4, and girl, 1. She’s been on welfare since 2013, would do anything to get off.
ASHLEY MURPHY: I feel like they kind of look down on you in a way.
PAUL SOLMAN: Murphy is now in a privately funded career training class, hoping to get a job in nursing and off welfare, which she’s on because she quit her last job in retail.
IMHO: The restrictions on welfare is a sub-conscience push to keep poor people 'in their place' and it is in keeping with Republican mindset of money before people (people are not worth spending money on).
Also the mistaken belief that these people are just lazy, 'no accounts.' "Are there no workhouses?" - "A Christmas Carol" (1843) by Charles Dickens.
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