Is there anything that can be done about welfare?

[Displaced Bama Fan]

And we wonder why businesses are relocating the HQ offshores? They see the writing on the wall.

 

[Probius]

Lemme throw this at cha...

My ex lives in Florida. She get food stamps, assisted housing, Medicare, more back from her income taxes than she pays in, and gets my child support.

Now to have all of this, she tells the state of Florida that I do not pay child support, so she rides on the "single mother" bandwagon, however, her and her current live in boyfriend pull down a combined $60K per year.

In contrast, I pay a mortage on my home and a rental property, pay my taxes and hers too from the looks of it, and work my ..... off. In fairness, I have succeeded enough to where I am finally beginning to enjoy the fruits of my labor, and having fun.

Fact is, there are people who manipulate the "system", and I have learned enough to say that they will probably get away with it for life. But, some of us know what's right and what's not right.

I feel for you buddy. If you can get your ex to marry this new guy the child support will go away.

 

[NYBamaFan]

I feel for you buddy. If you can get your ex to marry this new guy the child support will go away.

Clild support does not end unless the children are adopted...

 

[JAXFLBAMAFAN]

The fact that practically everybody on here has first hand experience of seeing this abuse is witness to how very very widespread this abuse is.

EVERY time I go to the grocery store or Wal Mart I see multiple examples of single mothers, usually black, that are pregnant, carrying a baby in a stroller and loading the cart with groceries that she will pay for with a government "paid for by taxpayer sucker card". It really burns my butt.

I'm not a racist. If it were mostly white girls I'd be saying the same thing.

My wife worked as a student counselor at a college that trained medical assistants. The student body was mostly black and at least 80% of them had more than one child by more than one father and practically none of them were married.

I wish the leaders of the black community would stand up and cry out against the immoral illigimate mentality that plagues the black community.

If the gravy train that is welfare and the earned income tax credit would be stopped much of what we see would stop too. If there were no financial benefit to having children out of wedlock it would stop almost immediately.

I have known people who quite their job in October because they would file taxes in January and get back just as much in the earned income tax credit as they would have made had they continued to work.

Where is the old idea of "self reliance" and pride and "I'm not taking any charity."? It is gone and forgotten by most in this country.

oh well....

What can we do? We say "talk to your congressman". THAT DOES NO GOOD! They are the ones that are perpetrating this crime on our country.

It will take a complete failure of the government or rebellion by it's populance before anything changes.

 

[Crimson Elite]

My biggest problem with the welfare system, is the women who continually have one child after the other. This is a way of life for them, and the easy way to get money.

They are not motivated nor do they want to be self-sufficent. I have no problem with someone who needs a helping hand until they can get back on their feet. Welfare is supposed to be TEMPORARY, not a way of life. But to abuse the system, and have another child after another,just to collect more money makes me angry.

It's a vicious cycle, and I don't know if it will ever be corrected, but it is a huge problem in our society.

 

[Crimson Elite]

I feel for you buddy. If you can get your ex to marry this new guy the child support will go away.

No it won't. It doesn't matter whether his ex marries this boyfriend or not. If it's his child, he is responsible for the child support, until the child reaches a certain age.

 

[Bama Reb]

No it won't. It doesn't matter whether his ex marries this boyfriend or not. If it's his child, he is responsible for the child support, until the child reaches a certain age.

In most states the child support continues until the child reaches 18 years of age. There are a few exceptions, such as if the child is female and marries before reaching 18, the child is adopted by the mother's new husband, or if a child moves out of the home and becomes self-sufficient (such as joining a branch of military service).

 

[TiderDawg]

We will probably never see anything change for the better for the hard working tax payer . But here is a novel idea .... since the government is paying all of these benefits with your hard earned tax revenues why not set up government day care centers staffed with some of the welfare recipiants. There are jobs in every city in this country that it is said that you and me do not want to do. There is a huge work force that the government is already paying. Why not use this work force for thoes jobs? And also there would be another great benefit to this aswell .... we could send all thoes people that are already doing thoes jobs back home ..... oh I meant to say we could send the illegal invaders of our country back south of the border. But we all know that something like this could never happen ... our political leaders could not take the chance of offending anybody because they woul not get their vote in the next election.

 

[jps1983]

I'm fairly young (24) and am sick of hearing about these people exploit the system. The system is wrong to begin with. My mom and her family came to the US from Cuba and they received support for about 6 months until they got their feet under them. They were too proud to stay on gov't assistance, and that is all that this whole thing comes down to. Our values and ethics have eroded in this country and it is all about "me," rather than "we." It is really sad and really frustrating at the same time.

 

[bamapride79]

You're not the only one to get frustrated and angry over cases of abuse such as the one you illustrated. I've seen women pile shopping carts full of meats and brand name groceries, pay for it with government debit cards (or in the past, food stamps, ADC or WIC coupons) then wheel them all out and load the bags into an Escalade, Excursion or even a Hummer.
As long as the government rewards and subsidizes laziness and punishes those of us who bear the cost through our tax dollars, abuses like this will continue.
Which is one reason that I've always been of the opinion that people who feed at the public trough shouldn't be allowed to vote.
When you add up all the benefits received by a family on welfare, they probably earn upwards of $35K or $40K per year by sitting at home and doing nothing...
So is this another argument in favor increasing the minimum wage, so as to make it more rewarding to work than to sit at home and collect welfare?

Right on. I worked in a grocery store as a teenager and this would happen pretty often. It always burned me up.

 

[Bodhisattva]

I swung by the grocery store near work during my lunch break today. The lady in front of my at the check out line, who looked about 20 years old, had four kids with her ...... and she was pregnant. Need I mention that she used taxpayer money to buy her groceries?

Blow up the whole damn program. It doesn't work. It's another example of the government inability to implement economically sound policies or understand the basics of human nature. Too many people are content to just get by on another's dime.

 

[always4bama]

Contact info for reporting fraud or suspected fraud for welfare/food stamps in AL and FL - it appears you can copy and paste the links in the address bar, not wanting to work as a link.

Info for AL

Jim Williford - Fraud and Overpayments Director
Phone Number: (334) 242-1900
Welfare Fraud Hotline - (800) 392-8048

Info for FL:

http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/ess/fsfactsheet.pdf

http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/ess/foodstamps.shtml


The statewide hotline number is 1-866-966-7226
In Tallahassee (850) 414-3300
In Orlando (407) 999-5588
In Tampa (813) 287-7940
In Ft. Lauderdale (954) 712-4600
In Miami (305) 377-5441
In Jacksonville (904)-858-6919
In Ft. Myers (239) 338-2442
In West Palm Beach (561) 837-5000
In Pensacola (850) 595-6057
The hearing impaired may now report Medicaid Provider Fraud Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., by contacting the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit at (850) 414-3935 (voice/TTY) or through the Florida Relay at 1-800-955-8771 (TTY)
In the calendar year 2004, MFCU investigations resulted in 55 arrests and the recovery of more than $27.7 million in cash.

CONTACT: Assistant Statewide Prosecutor James J. Schneider (407) 245-0893 OR Cristo Tolia, Director of the Auditor General's Division of Public Assistance Fraud, (904) 488-0620.

 

[NYBamaFan]

Who do I call to report the armed robbery that takes place every time I get paid?

 

[cbi1972]