A Response to an Asshole

In Re: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/welfare-spending-equates-168-day-every-household-poverty_665160.html

To put it bluntly, you are mendacious in your use of numbers, and your Assumptions boggle the mind.
This, “The universe of means-tested welfare spending refers to programs that provide low-income assistance in the form of direct or indirect financial support—such as food stamps, free housing, child care, etc.—and which the recipient does not pay into (in contrast to Medicare or Social Security).”

…is one way of seeing things…but it ain’t accurate.

All of these Programs are, in effect, “Social Insurance”…
Compare them with a regular car insurance policy; I purchase a policy… pay the first installment…and have a catastrophic wreck. The insurance company pays.
Simple, right?

If the insurance company followed your prescriptions, they would not pay anything, until I had “contributed” enough Jack to cover the amount paid by them for that wreck. This would remove the validity of the whole insurance “industry”…better to have a savings account.

“Welfare” is Social Insurance…and, under this system, We are a great big family…We, the People Purchase this Policy, to cover Everyone in Our national family. It’s the sensible and most cost effective way to tackle such problems….unless you get off on the suffering and hardship of your fellow man.

Then there’s this: “The situation Booker presents, however, is not accurate: a low-income individual on food stamps may qualify for $25,000 in various forms of welfare support from the federal government on top of his or her existing income and resources—including access to 15 different food assistance programs. Further, even if one unrealistically assumes that no other welfare benefits are available, the size of the food stamp benefit increases as one’s income decreases, as the benefit is designed as a supplement to existing resources; it is explicitly not intended to be the sole source of funds for purchasing food.”

Where, pray tell, do you get these numbers?

The perennial Assumption is that it’s an awesome experience to be on “Welfare”…and that it’s so freaking Easy to do, that Lazy People are “Choosing” Welfare as a sort of alternative to a Career.
There is No actual evidence for this Assumption.
I am Disabled.
I had a wreck 22 years ago, yesterday…and after hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Repair, I was able to go back to work. The Insurance that I had, up to that time, promptly dropped me…leaving better than a hundred grand in medical bills. I have not been “Insurable”, since.
So, six and a half years ago, when the Pain finally became too much for me to continue working, I took my Doctor’s advice…and applied for Disability.
Four Times I went through that Byzantine process. Apparently, my age at the beginning of this foray(36) counted against me…I was denied, despite all of the Doctor’s(including Disability’s own) being in agreement that I was “Disabled”.
So, since I didn’t Work during all this time (being Disabled, and all), my “Credits” withered away, until I was no longer “Eligible” for Disability…then SSI kicked in….and I am now navigating the screwed up Medicaid System that folks like You have created.
I receive Food Stamps…at first, $300/month…then, for no apparent reason(nothing’s changed in my Situation), the USDA dropped that to $80.(Largesse!)
I am currently having great difficulty finding a Doctor who will Fix me, and who also takes Adult Medicaid…due, I’m told, to the stupid, inefficient way that payments to Doctors are made….which is entirely due to folks like you. The Right has not been able to prevent, or repeal, things like Medicaid,,,so, instead, you all have endeavored to fuck it all up…ensure that it is dysfunctional and stupid.
Good job!

To add insult to injury, you and your ilk have engaged in the propagation of mean and nasty myths…fomenting an unearned and undeserved stigma on those unfortunate enough to have nowhere to turn, save Public Assistance.

Your “Facts” are easily countered (http://www.alternet.org/economy/how-astounding-new-right-wing-lie-about-economy-born?paging=off) ( which you will handily discount, since it’s from Alternet…note, that I read the Weekly Standard)

Walk a mile in my shoes…rather, hobble a few feet to the bathroom in them…ere you so blithely dismiss my plight…and the plight of so many other Americans.

The money wasted on Corporate Welfare, including the Subsidies to Exxon, et alia, would more than cover the cost of Medicare for All…as would a Financial Transaction Tax of a penny or two, per dollar..in the Great Casino of Avarice.
It’s about Priorities.

Who would Jesus Hate?